


A Hogwarts story : year 2

by Sixtu16



Series: A Hogwarts Story [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:53:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24774190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sixtu16/pseuds/Sixtu16
Summary: Clarke, Harry and their friends go back to Hogwarts for their second year. Like year 1, not everything is always being written down in books. A giant snake, you said?
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: A Hogwarts Story [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750876
Comments: 114
Kudos: 159





	1. The Meadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's summer, and everyone deal with it their own way. Clarke go on a holiday and encounters new people. The Blonde gets to see more of extra-corporal magic and its consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're back for year 2! I hope you're all ready for this, because I am!

** Chapter 1 : The Meadow**

It was hot outside, and Clarke puffed under the groceries bags' weight. As she was walking up the alley back to her house, she couldn't help herself but glance at the house where she knew their friend, Harry Potter, was in. Frowning and trying not to think about it, Clarke started walking a bit quicker, fearing that one of the bags was going to rupture soon. 

"Here, let me help" A voice said, and Clarke gratefully smiled as Octavia, one of her two best friends, was taking a couple bags out of her hands and help her get everything back into the house. 

Once inside, Octavia sighed as she slumped herself into a kitchen chair, while Clarke started putting each item where it belonged. 

"Still nothing from him?" Octavia then asked the question floating in Clarke's mind.

"Nope" Clarke sighed as she was putting a glass of fresh water in front of her friend, "Nothing. I tried ringing the bell a couple of times, but his uncle always said he wasn't there. My letters didn't seem to have reached him, either." Clarke sighed again. "Or maybe he just doesn't want to answer."

"You know that's not true, Clarkey" Octavia told her. "Harry's our _friend_. Something must have happened. Maybe he's punished, or something."

"Well I don't know" Clarke shrugged, still weighed down by the situation, "But Hermione called me last night and her and Ron are getting a bit worried too."

"They didn't hear from him either?"

"No they didn't." Clarke confirmed. 

"Wait" octavia then frowned, "Hermione _called_ you?" 

"Yes" Clarke shrugged, not seeing how it was surprising, "We're friends."

"I didn't think you were friends enough to call each other over the summer" Octavia chuckled. 

"Well it's easier to use the phone when you know how to use one, O". The Blonde rolled her eyes. 

"That's fair" Octavia shrugged. "I kind of wish I was closer to her myself. I mean, she did save our asses a couple times this year."

"Yeah" Clarke agreed, chuckling. Octavia was right; they wouldn't have made it out alive if not for Hermione. 

Octavia then got up, emptying her water glass. "I need to go, I'm supposed to go with Raven to her appointment."

Immediately, Octavia regretted telling Clarke about it, knowing that even after a month, Clarke was still feeling very guilty about what had happened to Raven, causing the girl to be hurt in the spine and lose part of her use in her left leg. 

"You know you're _not_ responsible for this, Clarke" Octavia put a comforting hand on Clarke's biceps, "And she doesn't blame you for it, either."

"I know she doesn't" Clarke murmured, "But still. It happened."

"Bad things happen all the time, C" Her friend then told her, walking her to the door. "Not everything is your responsability."

Clarke nodded, but Octavia was already out the door, heading to Raven's house. Clarke quickly finished getting everything out of the groceries bags, then went up to her bedroom, getting a little stack of letters. Clarke re-read every one of them, tightly clutching them in her hands. They were from her cousins; Diana's, mostly, although a couple of them had been written by Jade and Nathalia, too. The last one, she had received this morning, and had filled Clarke with a lot of hope and eagerness; the Vinys had asked her to come stay in a week's time, and Clarke was really looking forward to going. 

Although there was still one (big) problem; Clarke hadn't talked about her cousins to her mother yet, lying to her about the letters she was receiving, telling her they were from Hogwarts' friends. 

Sighing, Clarke started pacing into her room, trying to figure out how she would talk about this with her mother; she was still so angry at her that she wasn't even sure it was a good idea to talk while being that mad at her mother, but now that her cousins had asked her to come visit, she didn't have any choice. 

Clarke had tried asking Diana for answers, explanations, but her cousin had refused to give her anything, always repeating that she didn't even knew enough to tell anything to Clarke. The Blonde knew her cousin was right, of course, but talking with her mother about years and years of lies didn't look so appealing. 

Then, Clarke took another letter, a tiny smile growing her her lips as she re-read it. Lexa had been writing to her from time to time, asking her if she was ok, quickly telling her about their days. Although it barely even looked like small talk, Clarke could see beneath Lexa's words and guess the interest Lexa seemed to hold for her somehow.

Clarke then stopped pacing, having heard her front door open and close; her mother was home. Taking a deep breath and asking to the sky to give her enough courage, Clarke took the stack of letters, only leaving Lexa's in her room, and got downstairs, ready to finally confront her mother. 

* * *

Abby was sitting on a kitchen chair, probably checking e-mails on her phone. With tired eyes, she spotted Clarke coming downstairs, and gave her a light smile. 

"Hi Honey, how was your day?" Abby asked her daughter, lowering her eyes back on her device. 

Clarke didn't answer, and for a couple of seconds Abby didn't even noticed. But then, she seemed to remember Clarke hadn't answered the question, and stopped typing on her phone, getting her eyes back on Clarke, who hadn't moved from her spot, leaning on the door's frame. 

"Clarke?" Abby frowned, "Did something happen?"

"You tell me" Clarke then murmured, dropping the stack of letters from her cousins in front of her mother. 

"What is this?" Abby asked, confused about what seemed to trouble Clarke so much. She took one of the letter, opening it and turning it around to see who had written it; she spotted the name, and suddenly, Abby was very pale. 

"Clarke..." Abby only said, at loss of words. Clarke got around the table, and sat down in front of her mother, anger bubbling inside of herself and trying really hard not to scream at the woman sitting across the table. 

"Maybe you want to explain why I discovered of _three_ cousins that, until December, I had no idea of." Clarke said. 

Abby looked at her daughter, knowing that this time, she wouldn't be able to lie to get themselves out of this situation. At this very moment, the older woman was wishing very hard that Jake, Clarke's father, was still with them to help her with this touchy subject. 

"I was complicated" Abby started. 

"Complicated?" Clarke scoffed, "No Mom, nothing is complicated about that. On the contrary, it is very simple; I had a whole family, and you _chose_ to lie to me about it."

"Clarke..."

"Hell, you even lied about me being a witch! Who _does_ that?" Clarke got up, very upset as everything that she had kept in her chest was struggling to be set free. "My father went to Hogwarts, didn't he?"

Abby opened her eyes, and then closed it, nodding. 

"See?" Clarke growled, "You made me believe I was a simple muggle all my damn life, when you knew very well that all of my friends were wizards and that I was dying to be one too! You and dad lied to me about who you were" Clarke continued, "Because I bet you're not a _muggle_ doctor, because those don't exist!"

Abby stood there, watching her daughter get more and more upset by the minute, trying to convince herself that Jake and her had made the right call, years ago. 

"And I can't understand why you would hide something like that from me" Clarke couldn't stop herself from throwing everything at her mother, "Surely you knew I would end up in Hogwarts no matter the lies, right?"

Abby took a deep breath; she couldn't lie anymore, but Clarke wasn't going to like the truth better. 

"You weren't supposed to go to Hogwarts" Abby said.

Clarke stopped dead in her tracks, not sure she had heard well. "What?"

"You weren't supposed to go to Hogwarts" Abby repeated as Clarke was finding that her mother seemed to have aged ten years in the last ten minutes, "We hid that you were a witch, like both your parents, and cast enough spells so you wouldn't be called into going in Hogwarts." 

Clarke gasped, first at the mention that _both_ her parents were wizards, and that they had knew she was a witch, too, and then because her mother had just confessed that they had chosen to keep it hidden for whatever reason they might have had at the time. 

"But _why_ , why would you do something like that?" Clarke murmured. 

"There are things you cannot yet understand" Abby told her daughter, although she knew very well it wouldn't be enough for her. "This is a dangerous world we live in."

"And so you decided it would be better if I was to be miserable my entire life?" Clarke scoffed. 

"We did it to _protect_ you, Clarke" Abby sighed. "Not every wizard has good intentions."

"But what does that even mean?" Clarke retorqued, "What danger are you talking about?"

"Our family name comes with great danger" Abby only said. "We wished to protect you from it. We thought that if you never became a witch, then no one in the Wizardry World would know about you and that it would keep you _safe."_

"I don't even understand what you're saying, Mom!" Clarke shouted, "What does that have to do with the fact that I have cousins, and family, that you didn't talk to me about?"

Abby didn't immediately answered, and Clarke understood she wasn't going to have answers.

"Why won't you tell me anything about this? Mom, _please_!" Clarke pleaded, tears threatening to fall down on her cheeks. 

"Clarke, you're too young for this..." Abby trailed off, her heart constricting in her chest as she knew she was hurting her daughter more and more by the minute. 

"I am _not_ !" 

"I don't expect you to understand the choices we made" Abby sighed, making it clear that those would be her final words on the matter. "We did what we thought was right."

"Well that was not for you to decide." Clarke finally said, quickly wiping her cheek as a treacherous tear fell down. "And even if it _was_ to protect me, you should have come clean when I received my letter. I'll find out about all this, one way or another."

Clarke turned around, and ran up the stairs back to her bedroom, leaving a very tired Abby behind. 

* * *

Fuming, Clarke started throwing things into her suitcase without even looking at what she was putting inside it. Aska, having followed Clarke upstairs, gently nudged her legs, trying to calm her friend down. 

"I know, boy" Clarke scratched his ears, sniffing, "I'm upset, too."

Aska quietly barked, then lie down at Clarke's feet, watching her as she was moving around the room. Then, they heard footsteps on the stairs, and Clarke groaned, not ready to face her mother again. 

"Hi, Clarke" A voice said, and Clarke turned around, seeing that it was Raven that had gotten up, instead of her mother. 

"Rae" Clarke gently smiled, walking over to give a quick hug to her friend. "You're ok?"

"I should be asking _you_ that" Raven chuckled, gesturing to the mess Clarke had made in her bedroom. "What's going on?"

"Diana has asked me to come stay" Clarke sighed, "So I had to talk to my mother about them and…" 

"Oh" Raven hummed, not needing the rest of the sentence to figure out what Clarke was saying. "She got mad?"

"Not _mad_ " Clarke sighed, stopping what she was doing so she could focus on her conversation with Raven, "I don't know. She looked tired."

Raven hummed again, sitting down on Clarke's bed between two piles of clothes. 

"She told me they lied to protect me" Clarke then murmured. 

"Would it be a surprise to you, that your parents could do something like that?" Raven asked her; she had barely knew Jake, because he died when they were little, but she could remember how caring he was with his daughter - and his daughter's friends -. Raven was quite sure they would have done anything for Clarke, and justifying it by the wish for her to be safe. 

"Not really" Clarke sighed, because, as Raven, she knew her parents loved her. "But why lie about the Vinys? How does that protect me? And what does it protect me _from_ anyway?"

"You know _I_ won't give you answers about this" Raven sadly chuckled. "Ask Diana, maybe?"

"Diana won't tell me" Clarke shook her head, "She says she doesn't know that much."

Raven raised one brow at her friend because on the contrary, she had the feeling Diana knew a _lot_ of things regarding Clarke and the secrets that seemed to leviate around her. Over the summer, Clarke had explained more about her cousins to Raven and Octavia, giving them details about her trips to Beauxbatons, classes she went to, friends she made...

Clarke sighed at Raven's doubtful face. "It's like she, too, is afraid of something. She won't talk to me about it."

"And what about the other two?"

"Nathalia is even worst than her sister" Clarke rolled her eyes, "It's like she's a wall or something. I swear, she would have made a great spy."

They laughed, and then they started to pack Clarke's suitcase. 

"So you're leaving?" Raven casually asked, "How long?"

Behind her seemingly casual words, Clarke could hear Raven's insecurities coming back full speed. Raven had been abandoned by her parents, and from then she had always feared that people she cared about would leave. She had never said anything, but Clarke knew very well that a part of her friend was fearful of Clarke's cousins, as Raven was probably wondering if Clarke was going to forget about her, now that she had a _real_ family. 

"Rae, you know that this doesn't change anything, right?" Clarke gently said, halting her movements. 

Raven stilled, surprised that Clarke had seen right through her.

"Come on", Clarke took her by the hand so they could sit on the bed again. "Raven, I am thrilled to know that I have more family somewhere. They're my cousins..." Clarke trailed off, seeing how Raven was suddenly very interested in her shoes, "But you, and O... You're my _sisters."_

Raven turned her head towards Clarke so quickly the Blonde feared she might just have broke her neck. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me" Clarke then offered to Raven. The Brunette's bottom lip shivered, and a second later Raven was throwing herself at Clarke's neck, hugging her. 

"I'm here Raven" Clarke whispered into her hair as she was returning the hug, "Always."

* * *

Three days later, Clarke got downstairs, her suitase ready. The Vinys had told her to meet them by the end of the alley, and that someone would be there to bring her back to their house. Clarke hadn't asked more questions, because with magic and everything, she guessed they had everything planned already and that everything would be ok. 

"So, one week right?" Octavia asked for confirmation. 

"Yes" Clarke nodded, "And then we'll have to go buy furnitures for the new year. They'll send us a list, right?"

"Yup" Octavia said, "We'll wait for you."

Clarke bit her lip, seeing that she was ready to go. She really was looking forward to see her cousins, but after Raven's accident, and their conversation earlier this week, Clarke was still a bit uncertain about leaving her friends behind. Octavia, perceptive as always, seemed to sense it and gently smiled to her friend. 

"You go, Clarke" She told her, "I'll watch over Raven. We'll be there when you return."

"Alright" Clarke breathed, "Tell Raven I love her."

"Will do". The Brunette nodded, as Raven couldn't say goodbye to Clarke as she was at another medical appointment. 

They quickly hugged, and Octavia left the house. Once alone, Clarke sighed. She had barely said a word to her mother since their fight a couple of days ago; today Abby wasn't home because she had to work, and they hadn't exchanged a single word over breakfast this morning. Clarke had only told her when she was leaving for the Vinys', and nothing else. 

Quickly scribbling a note to tell her mother that she had left, Clarke grabbed her backpack and her suitcase and walked in the alley, throwing a last glance at the Dursleys' house, hoping that maybe, she would see Harry's face popping out of the window. What could keep him from reaching out to them and answering their letters? Did he was having a summer so good he didn't need nor miss them? 

But those thoughts were quickly shoved to the side when Clarke heard a "whoosh". Turning around, she spotted Diana, a couple of feet from her. Instantly smiling as Diana was smiling back, Clarke started walking to her cousin, to run the couple of meters left as Diana was engulfing her in a tight hug Clarke had been desperate to feel. 

"Diana" Clarke breathed against her cousin's chest, feeling like some weight had just been lifted off her shoulders. 

"Hi Clarke" Diana smiled, then freeing Clarke from her embrace. "You're ok?"

"Yeah" Clarke nodded, then saw what Diana was holding. "What's this?"

"A portkey." Diana showed the old baby shoe in her hand. 

"A what?"

"A portkey. It's a bewitched object, made to take you to a pre-arranged destination" Diana explained. 

"Ok" Clarke hummed, then frowned. "Wait, pre-arranged? How long have you had this portkey for, exactly?"

"This is one of your baby shoes" Diana confessed, "We've had it since the last time we've seen you, I think."

Gently, Clarke took the old shoe into her hand, turning it around. She couldn't remember anything about the Vinys, but judging by the size of the shoe, she must have been way to little to have memories anyways. 

"Does it work both ways?" Clarke then asked. 

"No" Diana shook her head, getting another tiny shoe from her pocket. "This one takes us back to our house."

Clarke took the other shoe, which was another tiny shoe. "Mine, too?"

"No, this one is mine, actually" Diana smiled. Clarke chuckled, and handed both shoes back to her cousin. 

"So, how does this work? Where are we going anyways?" Clarke asked. 

"Just put your hand on it, and don't let go until I say so" Diana told her, "I'm warning you, this will not be pleasant."

Clarke frowned, but did as she was told. In a whoosh, nobody was in the alley anymore.

* * *

"What the hell" Clarke croaked, having just puked her entire lunch, "What was _that,_ you could have warned me". 

"I did" Diana shrugged, although there was a tiny smile on her lips. Clarke mumbled something, too low for Diana to hear as the older Blonde was picking up Clarke's suitcase from the ground. 

Then, she gestured for Clarke to starting walking on the little path; it was pretty really, some kind of an alley bordered by trees, leading up to somewhere; probably Diana's house. 

"So, the portkeys" Clarke started talking once her stomach had settled down, "Are they the common transportation in the wizard world?"

"No" Diana shrugged, "It is only used when you want to travel in daylight and that you can't apparate."

" _Apparate_?" Clarke frowned, not having heard the term before. 

"Disappearing from one place and reappearing at another" Diana explained. "It's a bit hard to do, and you can't do it before a certain age."

"Are you able to do that?" Clarke asked, eyes widening with the prospect of what she could only refer as teleportation.

"Yes" Diana hummed, "But only between places I've been to before."

"So it's limited" Clarke deduced. 

"Well, yes and no" Diana answered. "For _me_ , it's limited. Some very powerful wizards can travel to places they never seen or went to. But it's very dangerous, and demands quite a lot of power and energy."

Clarke nodded, thanking her cousin for the explanation. "Would you teach me?"

"Teach you _that_ ?" Diana chuckled, "No way. I told you it's dangerous. But you'll probably have the opportunity to take apparition classes in Hogwarts, in a few years."

Clarke nodded again, as Diana was gesturing to the house they were starting to see up ahead. 

"Welcome to the Meadow, Clarke" Diana smiled to her cousin. 

The house was standing in the middle of a little meadow, with forest all around. Behind the house, Clarke could spot what looked like a small quiddich pitch, with three rings of different hights - which wasn't really surprising after all, with all three Viny girls being quidditch players. On the left side of the house, there was some kind of vegetable garden, part of it hidden under a greenhouse. The house in itself was very nice-looking; three rows of windows, so probably three floors, and a chimney on the roof, fuming. All built in light-colored stones, Clarke was finding that it was exactly fit to be the Vinys' house; classic but full of charm. 

Diana entered the house first, pushing open the light-wooden door, and gesturing for her cousin to follow her inside. Pleasant smells of something being cooked instantly reached Clarke's nostrils, making her quietly hum in appreciation. They had entered the living-room; couches on the right, in front of the fireplace, as books seemed to be put in shelves all around the room. In front of them, a massive wooden table with at least ten chairs was sporting a beautiful flower bouquet. 

Dishes banged somewhere on the left side of the door, and a woman was suddenly in front of them, looking exactly like an older version of Diana. 

"Oh Clarke, you're finally here" The woman said with a big smile on her face, suddenly moving forwards and quickly hugging Clarke. Surprised at first, Clarke returned the hug after a couple a seconds as Diana was chuckling behind them. 

"Sorry" The woman apologized although the smile never left her face, "I'm Louison, the girls' mother. And one of your father's first cousins."

"Pleased to meet you" Clarke murmured, a bit intimidated with meeting more members of her family and people who had been close to her father before he died. Then, someone rushed down the stairs as Louison was playfully rolling her eyes, and Jade was suddenly erupting into the living-room. 

"Clarke! You're here!" The younger Viny girl walked over to Clarke, quickly hugging her. 

"Hi Jade" Clarke smiled back, happy to see her too. 

"So, the portkey" Jade asked with a playful light in her eyes, "How did it go?"

"She totally puked" Diana stated, holding her hand expectedly to her sister as Jade was sighing and getting a bill out of her pocked and giving it to her older sister. 

"You just cost me ten bucks, Clarke" Jade said, pretending to be annoyed. 

Clarke started turning red as the other three women started to laugh. 

"It's ok really, it gives nausea to even the most used to it" Louison offered Clarke as the blonde was still giving a hard look to her cousins. "Jade, go help your brother please, dinner will be ready soon".

Jade nodded and started for the door, when someone Clarke had yet to meet entered the house, carrying a basket full of potatoes. 

"The carrots will be out soon I think" The boy said. Clarke was stunned by his appearance; he had blond hair a bit like Diana, but even clearer, making it look like it was almost white, depending on the light. His eyes were very same-shaped than Nathalia's, although more blue than her sister's. But what surprised Clarke most was the constellation of freckles he had on his face, reminding Jade's nose freckles. 

"Hi, I'm Timothé" He introduced himself, smiling to the blonde as Clarke was noticing his smile was very different from the other women's. "You must be Clarke". 

"Yeah, I am" Clarke smiled back as Timothé was putting the basket on the table and giving a quick hug to her cousin, then disappearing into the kitchen, followed by his mother. 

"Tim is only a year younger than you" Diana told her, "Probably only by a couple of months. He was born in february."

Clarke hummed, counting that they were only born four months apart as she was from October.

"Come, I'll show you the house" Diana gestured for her cousin. Clarke noticed that Nathalia had not come to greet her, but quickly put the thought in the back on her head as they were heading upstairs. 

"So, first floor, threre's my parents' bedroom and the office" She gestured to the right of the floor, "And on the left, my room in the corner, with Timothé's over there. There's a bathroom up ahead."

They entered Diana's room; walls painted with very light orange paint, there were a few pictures on the walls here and there. The older Viny had a couple of shelves full of books, and a wooden desk where notebooks and pieces of paper were scattered on it. It was a simple room, yet very Diana-like. 

Then, they went upstairs again. 

"The attic" Diana gestured to Clarke as she could see unboxed boxes and old armchairs. "Another bathroom here, and Jade's and Nathalia's rooms next to each other."

Clarke nodded, thinking that the house was charming, maybe even more in the inside. On every wall, there were moving pictures from the Vinys kids as well as people she could not recognize, probably friends of the Vinys or other relatives. 

"So, I think it's best if you stay with Nathalia" Diana told her while putting Clarke's suitcase in front of her sister's room, "She has the biggest room. Plus, she'll probably want to train you with Quidditch anyways, and I am _not_ being awoken at 5 in the morning whenever she wants to drag your ass on the pitch."

"What?" Clarke frowned, "5 in the morning? The sun is not even up yet!"

"You'll tell that to your cousin" Diana shrugged, although she had a tiny playful smile on her face. It reminded Clarke that she had still yet to see Nathalia. 

"Where is she?" Clarke asked. 

"I don't know" Diana said; Clarke could see that Diana looked a bit concerned about her sister's absence. "She'll probably be back soon though; she never misses a meal."

Clarke frowned, because Diana was acting like it was a bit usual for Nathalia to _not_ be here, as if she was wondering why she was gone for so long instead of just worrying about her absence. 

"Dinner's ready!" Diana's mother called from downstairs, and the girls started coming back down. 

* * *

They spent dinner chatting as the Vinys had a full supply of questions for Clarke about herself, her mother, Hogwarts... At the end of the meal, Clarke's cheeks was hurting from all the smiling and the talking. 

Louison asked her children to clear the table as it seemed like Timothé's turn to do the dishes - which made Clarke chuckle, because it reminded strongly of her and Octavia and Raven, having to instaure turns to do the chores if they wanted the house to be still standing by the end of the week. 

Clarke got out of the house, seeing that the sun was coming down and wanting to see the sunset over the forest. Spotting a bench a few feet away from the house, Clarke noticed the tiny lake that seemed to run behind the house and into the forest, and sat down on the bench. 

She didn't know how much time she had spent outside, as Timothé was apparently done with dishes and came to sit beside her. 

"I'm glad that you decided to come" He told her, looking ahead of him. "My sisters are very fond of you."

"I like them too" Clarke smiled, as she truly was beginning to develop real affection for her cousins. 

"They've been talking about you all year since they've met you in December" He added, chuckling, "Even Nathalia, who doesn't speak much usually."

Clarke chuckled too, then frowned, once again remembering that they had still not seen her. "Where is she?"

Timothé didn't answer straight away, as if he was internally deciding what to tell her; it reminded her strongly of his older sister. 

"Sometimes, 'Thalia is struggling" He finally said. "She needs to get away. To get it out of her system, something like that. She's not far, though. She'll be back soon."

Clarke nodded, accepting what he had agreed to tell her, knowing it wasn't the full story but keeping her questions to herself. 

"Look" He then pointed to the edge of the forest, where someone was walking towards them. "Diana!" He called, quickly coming back into the house, and coming back out again, Diana in tow. First frowning as to why his brother had called her, Diana then spotted the walking person coming towards them. 

"Go tell Mom she's back" Diana told her brother as he immediately went into the house as Diana quickly made her way towards her sister. Clarke frowned, sensing that something was happening, and feeling lost in this. 

She watched as Diana almost ran the last few meters separating her from her sister, arms wide open as if she was expecting Nathalia to fall down any moment. Suddenly, Clarke gasped; Nathalia had collapsed, Diana just quick enough to catch her just before she could hit the ground. 

"What the..." Clarke murmured, but didn't have time to ask questions as Jade was lightly pulling on her sleeve, directing her inside. 

"Come on Clarke, we'll wait for them inside." Jade said, bringing them to sit on the couch. A minute later, Diana was carrying an barely-awake Nathalia as their mother quickly went over to them, taking her daughter's face in her own, worry written in her eyes. 

"Thalia honey, you hear me? Are you done?" Louison asked her daughter. 

Nathalia weakly nodded, as Louison and Diana exchanged a look. Diana ajusted her arms around her sister, and suddenly, both of them were out of the room, leaving a very-stunned Clarke. 

"She brought her to her room. It's called apparate" Jade told her. 

"Diana explained it to me, earlier today" Clarke murmured, "But I didn't know you could _carry_ people with you."

"The apparate spell is very difficult in itself" Jade told her, "And carrying someone with you even more so; it's a bit easier if the other person knows how to do it, but still."

"Why didn't she do this sooner?" Clarke asked, asking herself why Diana hadn't bring Nathalia straight into her room from the garden. 

"It's too hard, too far" Jade told her. "Diana's the only one in the family to be able to do this with someone unconscious or someone who does not know how to apparate. And it's only on very short distance."

Clarke hummed, now understanding why Diana hadn't use this to bring her from her house to this place. 

"Will Nathalia be ok?" Clarke quietly asked; she didn't want to ask too many questions, but there were still a couple of them she really needed answers to. 

"Yeah" Jade sighed. "She just needs to sleep for a couple of hours."

Jade got up as her mother was coming back into the room, carrying mugs. She took a couple for her mother's hands and gave one to Clarke. 

"Hot chocolate" Jade said while giving her the mug. "I know you probably want to know what happened; my sisters will explain better than us, though."

Clarke nodded, understanding that she'll have to wait until Diana or Nathalia could answer her thousands questions. Timothé joined them into the living-room, taking a mug from the table as Clarke was thinking of something else. 

"So, how powerful a witch is Diana, exactly?" Clarke asked, noting that she seemed to be able to do things the majority of witches and wizards couldn't do. 

Louison quietly chuckled as a tender smile rose on her lips. 

" _Never_ tell her that she's powerful, she's already the older one, no need for her to have more power over us" Timothé joked. 

"You're only whining because you're the last one" Came a voice from behind them, as Diana was coming into the living-room, looking tired. Timothé chuckled as her sister took a seat next to him, in front of Clarke. 

Clarke saw the unspoken exchange between Diana and her mother, but like Timothé and Jade, pretended to not be aware. At the way Louison's shoulders relaxed, Clarke deduced that Nathalia was good enough for her mother to stop worrying, so she relaxed herself too. 

They spent the rest of night playing some french game involving cards, and once everyone was starting to yawn, Louison sent them all to their beds, wishing them a good night. 

A bit usure about sleeping in Nathalia's room and disturbing her, it was Diana that reassured Clarke, telling her that her sister was ok and just needed to rest. Quietly, they entered Nathalia's room, as Diana was showing Clarke the bed they had prepared for her, on the corner of the room, as the girl seemed to be sleeping. 

Then, Diana waved her goodnight and left the room. Clarke quickly changed herself into her pyjamas, sliding under the covers on the big bed she would get to sleep in, yawning once more. Calm settled in the room, as Clarke was looking through the window, watching the trees slowly move around under the wind, and listening to the quiet noises of Nathalia's breathing. 

Then, as Clarke was slowly starting to fall alseep, she was woken up. 

"Clarke?" Nathalia whispered into the room, her voice groggy with sleep and tiredness. 

"Yeah" Clarke breathed. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you when you got here" Nathalia apologized in a whisper. Clarke could hear the sincere apology on her cousin's voice and the need to explain herself, now competing against her need to sleep. 

"It's ok" Clarke told her, knowing Nathalia would talk to her once she wasn't that tired. Nahtalia sighed, the calm came back into the room once more, and they both fell back asleep. 

* * *

Next morning, Clarke woke up with a ray of light on her face. Opening her eyes, she saw that Nathalia was already up, so Clarke got out of bed and headed downstairs, where beautiful smells were coming once more. 

"Hi Clarke" Louison smiled to her as soon as Clarke had set a foot downstairs, "Slept well?"

"Yeah, thank you" Clarke answered as Louison gestured for her to sit down while putting a plate full of pancakes in front of her. On the other side of the table, Timothé was sipping on his hot chocolate, half-wallowed on the table, ruffled hair and sleepy eyes. 

"Hi guys" Diana then said, coming down from upstairs and jumping the last three steps. 

"No jumping the stairs Diana" Her mother playfully scolded her as her older daughter went to pour herself a cup of coffee with milk, looking around. "Your sisters are already outside" Louison told her. 

Clarke threw a glance at the window, spotting Jade and Nathalia in the garden, Jade throwing things at her sister. 

"What the... Are they arguing?" Clarke asked, a bit worried. 

"No they're not" Diana chuckled, sitting down next to Clarke and steal a pancake from her plate. "They're training. For Quidditch."

Clarke then remembered about Nathalia's power to move objects, and figured out Jade was only helping her sister get better at it. Quickly, Clarke shoved the remaining pancakes into her mouth, eager to go watch them. 

She got outside, and stayed away from her cousins so she wouldn't disturb them, but close enough that she could watch them. Diana joined her not long after, settling next to Clarke as she, too, was observing Jade throwing apples at Nathalia. 

"Nathalia's magic doesn't work like the rest of us" Diana told Clarke after a couple of minutes spent in silence. "We don't know how, or why, but instead of being a constant force she can bend and use, her magic is more like energy being stored up."

Clarke nodded, telling her cousin that she was following. 

"But this _storage_ has a limit, and if she doesn't use it, then it's too powerful for her to handle." Diana further explained. 

"So why doesn't she move objects all the time?" Clarke frowned. 

"Because using this type of magic is very tiring" Diana said. "If she was to use it on a daily basis to make sure she wasn't storing up too much, her body would not survive it. Not yet, anyways."

"What happens when too much energy is stored?" Clarke asked, although she wasn't sure she really wanted an answer. 

"She blows off" Diana somberly answered. "It's like... It builds inside her, growing stronger by the minute, and then she had to push everything out of herself, all at once."

"That's what happened, yesterday" Clarke murmured, linking the pieces together. 

"Yes" Diana nodded. "She usually goes into the forest and make everything vibrate. My parents planted trees, so she could blow them from the inside. Then, they grow back in no time, thansk to magic."

"So she's basically stuck between exhausting herself everyday so she's never too full of energy" Clarke frowned, "Or almost killing herself from time to time getting everything out at once."

"Basically" Diana hummed. 

They returned to a comfortable silence as Jade was still throwing fallen fruits at her sister, as Nathalia was easily diverting them. Clarke could see it was getting harder and harder, as Jade was throwing more fruits each time, until Nathalia couldn't divert them all at once and took one straight into the face. 

Clarke couldn't help it and busted into laughter, quickly followed by Diana and Jade, as Nathalia was massaging her nose, clearly not impressed with her sister. Jade then walked over to them, as Diana nodded to her younger sister, leaving Clarke's side and putting herself in front of Nathalia. 

Silently, Clarke watched as Diana closed her eyes and stayed unmoving for a couple of seconds. Then, it was an invisible battle that was happening, Diana and Nathalia moving their hands; Clarke could only _feel_ the energy in the air, the air bending under Diana's hands and the vibrations caused by Nathalia's. 

"Diana told you?" Jade then asked. 

"Yeah" Clarke breathed. 

"Quidditch helps" Jade told her. "That's the real reason to why they're letting her use magic on the pitch."

"But Diana and you use your powers too, don't you?" Clarke frowned. 

"Yes" Jade nodded, "But it's different."

"What's _your_ power?" Clarke then asked, remembering about Diana telling that all four of them had access to other forms of magic. 

"You'll see soon" Jade smirked with a playfulness in her eyes that reminded Clarke that the girl was only fifteen. "Look" Jade then pointed to Clarke, "Diana is helping Nathalia get rid of the excessive energy left the safest way we know of. Nathalia is making the air vibrate, and Diana keeps it from damaging things in the process, as she bends it."

"That is why it was _Diana_ than ran to her, yesterday" Clarke deduced. "She diverts Nathalia's force."

"Yeah" Jade nodded. "She's the only one to know how to do that, but she's barely strong enough."

They stayed quiet for a while when the other two girls seemed to have had enough for the morning, and they came over, all sweaty and tired-looking, although they both seemed globally fine, playfully pushing each other's shoulders. 

"I've let you sleep in this morning" Nathalia then threw to her cousin, "But tomorrow, I'm training you for Quidditch."

"Alright" Clarke chuckled, glad to see that her cousin seemed to be fine. Nathalia smiled back, unspoken words in her eyes Clarke wasn't sure she fully understood. 

"Girls! Come help us in the garden!" Louison's voice came from the greenhouse, as all four girls headed her way. 


	2. End of Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke spends the week at the Meadow, her cousins' house. In Diagon Alley, someone spots a flying car. There's a stormy night, and it's time for Clarke to go back home.

** Chapter 2 : End of Summer**

Every morning, Nathalia would wake Clarke up just before sunrise, they would head out, get themselves ready for their Quidditch training session, get onto their brooms so they could see the sunrise from over the trees. 

Then, Nathalia would spend a couple hours training Clarke, making her fly around and through the trees, tossing a ball to each other into the dense forest so Clarke could learn to catch a ball while being aware of her surroundings - once, Clarke almost knocked herself in a tree, but Nathalia saw it just in time and blew the tree up so her cousin wouldn't hurt herself. Aska would bark from time to time whenever Clarke would fly too high, or was getting close to be hit by one of the balls thrown by her cousin. 

Suddenly, Clarke felt her broom getting down without ordering it to. "What the..." Clarke murmured in disbelief as she was getting closer to the ground. She looked up, and Nathalia's broom was doing the exact same, but she didn't look so surprised at all. Clarke frowned, and Nathalia pointed to someone walking towards them. Diana. 

"You could just have called us, you know?" Nathalia told her sister, rolling her eyes, once they were back on the ground. 

"I know" Diana hummed, a light smile on her face as Aska was sat by her side, impatiently waiting for Clarke to get off her broom so he could run to her, "But what would be the fun in that?"

Nathalia rolled her eyes again, although you could perfectly see she was only pretending to be annoyed by her sister. Clarke was finding herself to be quite happy since the beginning of the week, watching all of them interact with each other; their dynamics reminded her strongly of what she had with Octavia and Raven. They walked back to the house, lunch behind ready for them. 

"So, Dad's coming home tonight?" Timothé asked his mother as Clarke froze on her chair. She had completely forgotten about their dad, and had never asked about it; she was so used of seeing uncomplete family that the idea that they had a dad somewhere had not crossed her mind a single second. 

Seeing that Clarke looked guilty, Diana chuckled, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's ok. We never told you, either."

Clarke didn't find it really ok, but was thankful for the lie anyways. They spent the rest of the day fooling around, helping Louison with the greenhouse, throwing things at each other to train themselves at Quidditch while Aska was tunning like a mad dog around them, and Diana even gave Timothé and Clarke a Charm lesson. Timothé was going to start real school this year, after having been through three years of pre-school; and Clarke was finding that he was already very skilled with magic. 

The boy was smart, and calm and quiet, but powerful and dangerous at the same time, a bit like a dormant sea that could turn into a storm at anytime. Watching them move around, Clarke was finding that there was something almost magestic about all of them; there was a greatness in their unity, almost as if they knew each other so well that they were only one individual, moving together as one, every each of them in perfect sync with the others. 

Outside, light had beginning to fade as the night was slowly settling in as they were finishing their work for the day. 

"Clarke, come on!" Jade called her while gesturing to the house, "It's going to rain!"

Clarke looked up to the sky; big dak clouds were coming towards them, and the air was heavy on their skin as it grew a bit colder; a thunderstorm was coming.

"Aska, come on boy!" Clarke called to him, lightly running towards the house. 

They all got inside the house, Clarke a bit down about having to stay inside because of the coming storm; but then, she frowned, noticing that none of them seemed to be sad about it. In fact, they all looked _happy_ and enthusiastic about it, almost as if they had been waiting for the storm. Aska, sitting on the floor, looked as confused as she did. 

It was Diana who, once again, figured out what was happening in her cousin's head. "We _love_ storms here" Diana whispered to her, pointing at Jade and Timothé as they both looked overjoyed, "You'll understand why in a minute."

Suddenly, thunder was upon them, growling so much the walls of the house were trembling with the noise and its intensity. At her feet, Aska didn't seem too worried either, but the Blonde noticed how the way he was keeping very close to her. Clarke frowned when she noticed that Jade and Timothé were impatiently standing next to the front door, looking like they were waiting for something. It then started to rain big and heavy drops of water, soaking the ground in a minute. 

Louison then chuckled at her two youngest kids, giving them a nod. "Go ahead, both of you" She waved them off. 

Jade and Timothé shrieked, and both of them were out of the door not even a second later and straight under the rain. Clarke went to the window, curious about what her cousins were doing to need them to be outside in such a bad weather. First standing under the stormy sky, both of them were staying still, eyes closed. Clarke frowned, having seen something like that already; whenever Diana or Nathalia had been focusing to use their powers. 

Then, almost imperceptibly at first, Clarke saw Timothé slightly move his hands, eyes still closed. The rain then slowed down to the point where it was almost suspended in the air, like something was stopping the rain from falling. 

Clarke gasped, a flash of understanding coursing through her brain. _The elements,_ Diana had said about extra-corporal magic. 

"Timothé can _bend_ the rain" Clarke murmured, her face almost glued to the window to see better. "That's his power."

" _Water_ , yes" Nathalia corrected her while nodding. "For now, he can only stop the rain from falling for a couple of seconds" Nathalia added, having taken place by the window, next to Clarke. 

"He will learn to do more" Diana added, having joined them too. "He's still very young, and neither of us knew how to use extra-corporal magic at his age."

Clarke nodded, stunned and impressed by her younger cousin who was slowly moving his hands under the rain, playing with it as he seemed to try to keep it from falling, and then letting it drop to the floor again. 

Thunder growled again, and Nathalia nudged Clarke's arm, directing the Blonde's attention to Jade. Clarke curiously watched as Jade was still standing still, eyes closed, with only her fingers moving around as if she was trying to get rid of tingling sensations. 

Suddenly, thunder growled another time and Jade opened her eyes, throwing her hands to the sky as lightening bolts were striking into the clouds. Clarke gasped; some of them had just hit Jade!

"Relax, she's ok" Diana chuckled. 

"But..." Clarke frowned, her heart furiously beating into her chest, then eyes widening once she understood. "She can control _lightning bolts_?!" 

"Static electricity" Diana confirmed. "Cool, right?"

"What is wrong with you people" Clarke muttered, still not over her fear after seeing Jade being struck by lightning. 

"Welcome into the family" Nathalia snorted as Clarke was smiling back at her.

_Family_. Clarke had never thought she would find family members of hers; she had gotten used to being only her and her mom by now, and her friends... None of them had big families, and no one had their two parents still. Except for Bellamy and Octavia, none of them even had a sibling. 

They stayed a while, all three girls side by side to the window as they were watching Jade and Timothé play with their powers; Jade's were really impressive, as she was able to get hit by lighting and redirect it onto a tree, or anything she could hit with the lighting bold, using it as a weapon she could throw around. Timothé's capabilities were more sublte, as he wasn't capable of holding too much water for too much time, but still, seeing the rain almost still in the sky to drop again was very stunning. 

A few moments later, Jade and Timothé were coming back into the house, soaking wet, tired smiles on their faces. They headed upstairs to shower so they wouldn't get sick as Louison was taking the remaining girls to the living-room. 

"It's never too calm, here" Louison told Clarke with a grin. Clarke was very envious about Louison's relationship with her kids; they were all very close, there was no doubts about that, and she looked proud of them all day, every day. The Blonde started to wonder if she could ever have that with her own mother, after everything that they had been through; her father's death, the lies, the endless hours working in the hospital leaving Clarke alone at home... Clarke quietly sighed, going into the kitchen so she could start preparing mugs of hot chocolate for everyone. 

Somehow, Louison, who seemed to have the same perception sense as Diana - or rather that Diana must have inheritated that from her mother - noted Clarke's changing mood, and followed her to the kitchen. 

"Don't be too hard on your parents, Clarke" Louison gently murmured, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "They only did what they thought was best, in order to protect you."

"That, I can understand" Clarke sighed. "I just don't see why I need protecting in the first place."

Louison bit her lower lip. "Our family is a very old one" The woman said. "And we have made a few enemies, along the way. There are bad people out there, who could be threatened just because you are a Griffin."

"Just as everyone who's part of a big and old family!" Clarke retorqued. 

"Except Griffins can do things some others can't" Louison said. "Take a look at your cousins. This kind of power alone can push someone to do bad things, out of jealousy. Or fear."

Clarke understood what Louison was saying, even though she still wasn't very convinced about the whole being-in-danger thing. "But I am _nothing_ like them" Clarke murmured. "I don't have anything special."

"Or maybe you just don't know about it yet" Louison shrugged. Clarke frowned, but didn't have time to ask questions as Louison was speaking again. 

"I think Diana told you about your necklace, didn't she?" Louison then asked, pointing to Clarke's upper chest where the red stone was resting. 

Clarke nodded, playing with the pendant. 

"Then you know how someone could fear Griffins' magic adding up together to create a greater force, a more powerful force" Louison gently told her. 

"Griffins' magic?" Clarke frowned. "A blood-type of magic?"

"We don't really know" Louison truthfully answered. "But yeah, that's one theory. Usually happens between siblings."

Clarke hummed; as she didn't have any siblings, she now didn't know how she could develop such magic, and therefore she wasn't that dangerous, after all. They quickly preparer the hot drinks, and got back to the living room with the others. 

* * *

"It's been almost two months, O" Raven said, reading Ron's letter again. "I say we let them try to break him free."

"And what if he's really not there?" Octavia asked, although not convinced by her own words. 

"You don't even believe it yourself" Raven snorted. "I'm telling you, something's off."

"Yeah" Octavia hummed, forced to admit that she was sharing Raven's weird feeling, "He wouldn't go all silent like this. Or not with Hermione and Ron, at least."

Raven nodded, closing up the letter. "Should we tell Clarke?"

"She's with her family, she'll be back soon, no need to bother her with this" Octavia told the other girl, biting her lips. "She hasn't even written to us, so..."

" _We_ are her family too, you know" Raven quietly said, repeating the words Clarke had said before leavign to her cousins' house. 

"I know, I know" Octavia sighed, running a hand through her hair, "I just... I don't know what to do about all this. Clarke would know."

"She'll be back soon" Raven repeated Octavia's words. "So, how are we going to hide a flying car with people breaking out a boy from his bedroom?"

* * *

In the Meadow, it was almost time for Clarke to go back home. She had met the Vinys' father, Andrew, who was quite a simple man - and a very kind one. He reminded Clarke a bit of her own father, calm and peaceful, a very caring man. Like Nathalia, he had dark hair and pale eyes, a certain light shining into them, as if he was still a kid himself. Louison had told her a bit about their relationship with her own parents; Louison and Jake had been very close, spending every summer together when they were little, then they had both receptively met their other half and the four of them were really getting along. Louison didn't explain what had happened after the last time they all had seen each other, and Clarke didn't ask. 

It was night again, and it was time for the family to go to sleep. Clarke's body was aching with all the trainings Nathalia had put her through, but she had to admit that she had made real progress on a broom, and that she was starting to like Quidditch a lot. Andrew had congratulated her, when he watched them train once; she would do an amazing chaser, just like his own daughters. 

"She's a great kid" Andrew murmured to Nathalia, who was standing besides him, watching as Clarke was finishing helping Jade in the kitchen with the dishes after dinner. 

"She is" Nathalia hummed, leaning in her father's side. Andrew put an arm around her daughter, gently squeezing. 

"How are you holding up?" He asked her. 

"I'm ok" Nathalia shrugged. "Tired."

Her father nodded. 

"There's something about her" Nathalia quietly told him after a while. 

"What do you mean?" 

"I don't know how to explain it" Nathalia shrugged. "But it's like... It's like she's emitting this energy, a bit like I do" She tried to explain, "Except it doesn't consume her... Like she doesn't even notice, or doesn't feel it..."

Andrew kept silent for a few seconds, thinking about it. "You think she has it too?"

Nathalia nodded, confirming her father's suspicions. "I _know_ she has it."

* * *

In the darkened room, Clarke was playing with her plae glowing necklace, unable to find sleep. Nathalia, in the other end of the room, seemed to have noticed it. 

"Can't sleep?" Nathalia whispered, sitting up in her bed. 

"No" Clarke sighed. There were too many thoughts running on her mind to go to sleep. "Nathalia, what do you know about this necklace?" Clarke then asked. 

"Not much" Nathalia admitted. "I just know yours and Diana's has been in the family for a very long time now."

Clarke nodded, still preoccupied. From her bed, Nathalia wondered a couple of minutes about what she should do, then quietly got up, coming to sit on Clarke's bed. Clarke frowned, not expecting Nathalia to come over, but made room for her cousin and gestured for her to get under the covers, next to Clarke, as she was gesturing for Aska to move a bit from his spot. 

The Viny girl settled down by Clarke's side. 

"From what I know, those necklaces belonged to powerful witches from the early branches of the Griffin's family, maybe even ones of the first Griffins ever" Nathalia explained. "Each stone as a signification I believe, but I just know that Diana's stone, the rose quartz, means protection, love, healing, peace..." 

"Who did she get it from?"

"Mom" Nathalia answered. "Who herself got it from her own father, Louis Griffin". 

"He was my grandfather's brother, right?" Clarke asked. 

"Yes" Nathalia confirmed. 

They stayed silent for a while, as Clarke was still fidgeting with her pale glowing necklace. 

"How do the necklaces _know_ that you are a Griffin?" Clarke then asked her cousin. "would it work, if _you_ were to carry mine?"

"No it wouldn't" Nathalia denied, "Because I am not a first-born." 

"Would it glow if I gave it to Diana?"

"I don't think so, either" Nathalia shrugged. "I think it's a bit like wands, you know? The necklaces recognise the owner they are supposed to belong to." The Viny girl told Clarke, "Diana is already paired with one necklace; she could not be paired with another at the same time."

"And when I'll die, the necklace will shift its allegiance and go to my first-born girl?" Clarke asked again. 

"I think so" Nathalia hummed. "Or I think you could _choose_ to give it to someone else from your family tree, if you weren't to have a girl when you'd die. It wouldn't work with a boy, anyway". 

Clarke nodded, not very sure she understood everything but have got the basics of it. 

"It can't be the only two necklaces" Clarke wondered out loud. 

"I don't know" Nathalia truthfully answered, "Diana knows more, but never wants to talk about it."

"How powerful is Diana exactly?" Clarke then asked, repeating the question she had asked a few days earlier. " She seems more powerful than she should be, at seventeen". 

"That's because she _is_ " Nathalia hummed, a somber expression settling on her face. "I don't think I would be there today, if it wasn't for her."

Clarke didn't answer; she didn't really know if she could ask questions if Nathalia was offering to talk about herself first, so she stayed quiet, waiting to see if her cousin would say more. 

"I know Diana told you" Nathalia said again. "About me. About my magic?"

"Yeah, she did" Clarke confirmed, not pressing her cousin to talk but being very curious at the same time. 

"I don't control it" Nathalia confessed as if it was weighting her chest, "I can't keep everything inside, and it has to get out at some point. She was the only one strong enough to help get rid of the excessive energy in me."

"Was?" Clarke frowned, noticing how her cousin had just talked about it in the past tense. 

"Was" Nathalia repeated. "Until you."

" _Me_ ?" Clarke raised her brows in surprise, turning over so she was facing her cousin, "What does it have to do with me?" 

Nathalia didn't answer straight away, only turning on her side to face Clarke. "I don't know how to explain it" Nathalia murmured. "But when you're around... My magic's not that powerful. Or rather, I can control it better" Nathalia corrected herself. 

Clarke turned herself to face her cousin too, frowning. "What do you mean? Like I'm somehow weakening your powers?"

"No, not weakening" Nathalia shook her head, "But like the excessive energy that I always have isn't there, when _you_ are here."

Clarke frowned again, not understanding what it was that Nathalia was trying to tell her. 

"It's like... It's like my magic goes to you, instead of overwhelming me" Nathalia whispered. 

"But I don't feel anything" Clarke shook her head, "I don't have that kind of magic. You know that."

"Well I don't know" Nathalia quietly shrugged, "Maybe you just don't know it yet".

Clarke opened her mouth to talk, then closed it again; Nathalia had said the exact same words her own mother had told her earlier. And that couldn't be a coincidence. 

"Maybe it's just because i'm distrating you from your routine that your mind is not focused on your magic" Clarke offered, even if she only half-believed it herself. 

"Maybe" Nathalia whispered. Then, she yawned, but made no move to go back to her own bed, only settling better under the covers. 

Clarke, who by now was used to sleeping with people with how much Octavia and Raven would sleep in the same bed - and now, Lexa - didn't say anything to her cousin either. Soon enough, both girls were alseep side by side in Clarke's bed. 

The next morning, it was time for Clarke to go home. 

* * *

"You'll come to Beauxbatons after Christmas like last year, right?" Jade asked her cousin, hugging her goodbye. 

"I'll try" Clarke answered, "But really I was just only following Lexa, I don't know if I'll be able to come back this year."

"Dumbledore will let you come" Louison told her, smiling as she demanded a hug, too. "You can come back to the Meadow anytime Clarke, alright?"

Clarke nodded, voice too heavy with conflictual feelings to actually talk at loud. 

"Bye kid" Andrew told her, briefly hugging her, "It was very nice seeing how much you've grown since last time I've seen you."

Clarke thanked him, finding that she was really beginning to like him too, even if she had only seen him for a couple of days. Truly, Clarke was finding that Andrew really looked alike his father, and it was quite funny that Louison was her father's cousin and not Andrew. 

"I hope you'll come to Beauxbatons for Christmas" Timothé said, "My sisters got to see you more than I did, and we're closer in age that with either of them, so it's only fair you get to spend time with me, too."

Clarke chuckled, doing the handshake she had made up with him the day before as their secret signature - ok, not so secret. 

Clarke then frowned, noticing that Nathalia hadn't come out of the house to say goodbye. 

"She's inside" Diana murmured, having somehow read in her mind again, "Go, I'll wait here for you."

Heart constricting into her chest, Clarke went back outside in search of her cousin. During the past week, with all the early training sessions and everything, she had really grown closer to Nathalia, in their own way, and Clarke was finding that saying goodbye to her was harder than what she had originally thought. Nathalia was the quieter one, the more reserved, but Clarke was finding herself have a growing friendship with her cousin. 

"Nathalia?" Clarke quietly called into the empty house, quickly looking around trying to spot her. 

"I'm here, Clarke" Nathalia answered, slowly coming down the stairs. 

"Were you not going to say goodbye?" Clarke chuckled, although a little sadder than what she had intended to. 

Nathalia shrugged, finishing to get down the stairs. They stared at each other for a while, neither of them really knowing how to proceed and trying to delay the goodbyes as much as they could. Finally, Nathalia closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around Clarke as the Blonde was immediately returning the embrace. 

"Thank you" Clarke murmured into her cousin's neck. 

"Thank _you_ , Clarke" Nathalia answered back, "We'll see each other soon, right?"

"Right" Clarke nodded, feeling her body being weirdly heated up by her cousin's hug. Then, she broke the embrace, looked one last time at her cousin and left the room to go join Diana so she could bring her home. 

Once Clarke was gone, Nathalia sighed, a weird feeling in her chest. And she noticed it. The buzzing, usually always in her ear. It was gone.

* * *

"You're home, Clarke" Diana chuckled as her cousin was trying really hard not to puke again. Aska only barked, having somehow enjoyed the ride. Clarke threw him a dark glance, making Diana chuckled even more. 

"This is a _magic_ dog, Clarke" Diana laughed, "I'm sure he used to travel like this with his former owner". 

"Magic dog?" Clarke frowned, looking at her dog like it was the first time she had that thought. 

"Well did you not buy him in a magic animal shop?" Diana raised an amused brow at her cousin. 

"I did" Clarke shrugged, "But he never... I guess I forgot he isn't a regular dog, even if he never did anything magical". 

"You know, just because something isn't visible doesn't mean it isn't there" Diana told her with a gentle smile. 

"Yeah, I'm starting to learn that" Clarke hummed, then looked to her house that, as always, looked empty. 

"We'll see each other soon" Diana then put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Thanks for coming over this summer. We were all glad that you were there."

Clarke only nodded, incapable of speaking words as she was trying to keep her tears at bay; it had only been a week or so, but it felt like so much more; and Clarke wasn't ready to go back to her old and lonely life yet. 

"Your friends are waiting for you" Diana offered her as she seemed to read in Clarke's thoughts. 

They hugged as Clarke could feel her necklace warm her chest with how close the two of them were. 

"Bye, Clarke" Diana waved at her a last time; and in a bat of an eye, she was gone. 

Clarke sighed, finding herself alone on the pavement. "Come on boy" She gestured to Aska, "Let's go see if Raven and Octavia didn't destroy anything while we were gone."


	3. Magical Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They found out what happened to Harry. The gang goes to Diagon Alley to shop for the new year. What's all the fuss about a man with long blond hair?

** Chapter 3 : Magical Me **

Clarke had not even taken her house's keys from her pocket that her front door was opened, and two quick figures were running into her, almost choking her in their embraces. 

"Clarke you're back!" Octavia exclaimed. 

"Took you long enough!" Raven added, squeezing her Blonde friend. 

"I've missed you too guys" Clarke chuckled, returning the embrace. And it was true, now that she thought about it; she had never spent so much time away from Raven and Octavia, usually only not seeing each other for a couple days. She made a mental note to spend more quality time with her friends, as it seemed that the three of them needed it. 

"Did you have a good time?" Octavia genuinely asked, taking Clarke's suitcase from her hands, "Will they visit, in return?"

Clarke opened her mouth to answer, excited to tell her friends about everything that she had done and seen, but then she spotted Raven, who had already went back into the house and who seemed a bit down as Octavia's mention of her cousins. 

Clarke shared a knowing look with Octavia, and she didn't need anything more to know that it had been complicated for Raven, when she wasn't there. 

"I don't know" Clarke hummed, "I don't think I will see them so soon, I mean, with classes and stuff..." 

Octavia sent her a gentle smile, knowing that Clarke had more to say but not wanting to hurt Raven. 

"So, Rae, did you blow stuff up while I was gone?" Clarke joked, trying to get her friend to cheer up a bit, "I swear I didn't want to come home a day later than today, I was too afraid my house wouldn't be standing."

That seemed to do the trick as Raven was shrugging her off. 

"I wish I had the fun of destroying your house, Griffin" Raven grinned at her, "I only blew up a couple of bars from a window."

"Wait, you what?!" Clarke exclaimed. 

"You know how we were worried we hadn't heard from Harry for the whole summer" Octavia started to explain, "Well neither did Ron or Hermione, so Ron reached out to us, telling us he and his brothers wanted to come pick him up". 

"When did that happened?" Clarke frowned, knowing that she had only left for a week and that nothing of the sort had happened while she was still there. 

"A couple days ago" Raven shrugged like it was no big deal. 

"Why didn't you tell me? Or write?" Clarke frowned. 

"Well you seemed too busy to write to us, so..." Raven retorqued, trying to act like it was nothing although there was a bite to her tone that Clarke didn't miss. 

"We thought that as you were only away for a week, it wasn't worth it to write to you before you came home" Octavia cut the argument. "By the time you would have received our letter, your week with your cousins would have been over and you would have come home either way."

Clarke sighed, quickly looking at Raven who still seemed uspet. "Alright. So what happened?"

"The Weasleys came here, in a _flying_ car" Octavia chuckled, still have trouble believing it, "Raven blew up the bars attached to Harry's window and we got him out. Turns out he hadn't received any of our letters and was kind of locked in by his aunt and uncle."

"What a pain in the ass, this man" Clarke said. "Where's Harry now?" 

"In the Burrow, the Weasley's house" Octavia told her. "We'll see him in Diagon Alley in a couple days, when we'll go shopping for the new scholar year."

"Okay" Clarke nodded at her friend. "Do you think his uncle kept our letters from him?"

"I don't know" Octavia shrugged, "But he did say something about someone keeping his letters. I don't know, we were kind of in a hurry". 

Clarke threw her an obvious look, because of course breaking bars and flying around in a car must have left them little time to found out what had really happened this summer for Harry. They got inside the house, Aska happily barking to be back to a place he knew. 

"Did Hermione know about all of this?" Clarke enquired, already chuckling at the reaction her friend must have had. 

"Yeah, she was not very pleased" Octavia chuckled too, "She said that it was not very wise of us to wander around London in a _flying_ car". 

"Well, she does have a point" Clarke shrugged with a tiny smile. 

"When does Hermione _not_ have a point?" Octavia answered with another chuckle. The trio settled into Clarke's couch, choosing to stay inside to avoid the outside's summer heat. 

"Did he like it, going to your cousins' ?" Raven enquired, gesturing to the dog as Aska was settling on Clarke's feet, his head facing the front door as if he was always looking for some threat that could come busting through the doors at anytime. 

"I think he did, he had space to run and everything" Clarke nodded, gently patting Aska's head, "Although he doesn't really like me flying on a broom."

As on cue, Aska quietly growled at Clarke, making the girls chuckle. "You've been on a broom?" Raven asked again. 

"Yeah" Clarke smiled, thinking back to the past week. "Nathalia trained me for Quidditch."

"So, you're gonna play this year, right?" Octavia asked her Blonde friend. 

"I think I will, yeah" Clarke murmured, still not completely sure about her decision but finding herself wanting to try more than she was ready to admit to herself. "Diana said it was in my blood."

"What does _she_ know about what's in your blood" Raven mumbled very low, but not low enough for Clarke not to hear. Octavia and Clarke shared yet another heavy look, before Octavia got up from the couch she was sitting on. 

"I have to go home for a while, I forgot Bellamy needed me for something" Octavia obviously lied, wanting to give space to Raven and Clarke so they could talk about whatever seemed to bother Raven. Octaiva had a clue about what was wrong, of course, because she and Raven had talked about it a lot while Clarke had been gone, but she wanted to give both of them space to talk. 

Clarke nodded with a grateful smile, as Raven, lost in her thoughts, didn't even seem to register Octavia's words. 

Octavia got out of the house, closing the door behind her. Then, Clarke sighed, and went to sit by Raven's side on the couch. 

* * *

Gently, Clarke sat down next to her friend, daring to put a hand on Raven's knee. 

"Raven" Clarke murmured, trying to gain her friend's attention back on herself. "You want to tell me what's been going on with you?"

Raven turned her head around to look at Clarke, eyes filled with something Clarke had never seen there before. 

"I..." Raven started, only to sigh a second after and look down again. 

"Rae, you know you can tell me anything, right?" Clarke tried again, then taking one of Raven's hands in hers, "Is this... Is this about my cousins?"

Raven shrugged, although it was enough of an answer to Clarke. 

"Raven, please..."

"I don't know, Clarke" Raven sighed, looking sad and a bit defeated by something Clarke couldn't totally point out. "Everything just... _Changed_."

"What do you mean?" Clarke frowned, "Yeah things changed, I mean I am a witch somehow, crazy right?" Clarke tried to joke. 

"That is not what I meant" Raven quietly said. 

"Then explain to me" The Blonde gently answered, trying really hard to figure out what it was that was bothering Raven. 

"I..." Raven waved her hands around in frustration, "I don't know. I feel like... I _know_ that we're family, that nothing will ever change that, but I... I just never thought some of us would have another family, you know?" Raven finally confessed. "A real one, blood-related. I guess I had never thought about us having other people in our lives, before."

"So this is not _only_ about my cousins" Clarke was slowly figuring out. It was true that a lot of things had changed in the last year. 

"I... I don't know. Maybe not." Raven shrugged again. 

"You know, we are going to meet a lot of new people, through the years" Clarke told her, "Some who will be amazing people, some who will be bad people. But you know what will never change?"

Raven frowned, not seeing where Clarke was going with this. 

"You, Raven" Clarke gently smiled. " _You_ are what will never change in my life. And O. Whatever we do, wherever we go or whoever we encounter, _you_ will always be a constant thing in my life. My personal compass. And nothing nor no one will ever change that." 

Eyes filled with tears, Raven nodded, letting Clarke embrace her in her arms and hug her. 

"You will always be top of my list, Raven. I would pick you first, every time." Clarke added. 

"Well, of course" Raven chuckled with a wet smile, "I'm awesome."

Both girls laughed, and Raven never found herself in a bad mood again for the rest of the summer. 

* * *

A couple of days later, Clarke was finding herself coughing again, as they had used floo powder once again to get to Diagon Alley. Like she remembered, Diagon Alley was buzzing with people walking in every direction, some young individuals wearing Hogwarts' shirts, some older people with pointed hats or dressed like muggles - probably muggles parents from some wizards students. 

"So, what do we need to buy this year?" Octavia asked her friends, getting their list of furnitures out of her pocket. 

"Go buy your books first" Bellamy told them, gesturing to the book shop up ahead, "I'm going to go meet with someone first. I'll meet you there."

And less than a second later, he was out of their sight, heading to god knows where. 

"What's up with him?" Clarke asked Octavia, "It's like he has something else on his mind, these days."

"Or more like _someone_ " Raven smirked as Octavia was pretending to gag at the idea of her brother dating anyone. 

"He's been distrated lately, it started when you went away to your cousins' " Octavia shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's because he's entering his fifth year."

"Like Bellamy ever cared about school" Raven commented again, raising a brow at her friend. Clarke chuckled at her friends' antics, then looked up to the furnitures list again. 

"Alright, so it says we have to buy quite a few books" Clarke frowned, reading the long list of books they needed to have for their defense against the dark arts classes. "Who is this... _Gilderoy Lockhart_?" 

"it's _the_ autor of the year" Octavia answered as Raven was making a disgust face. "He is famous, really, he went through a ton of dangerous adventures and wrote a lot of books about it."

"I can see that" Clarke chuckled, putting the list back into her pocket. "Better get going, then. Where did you say we were supposed to meet with the others?"

* * *

Hermione spotted them first, quickly getting up from Gringotts' staircase where she sat and running full speed towards them, almost throwing herself at Clarke's neck. 

"Clarke! Guys, it's wonderful to see you again" Hermione hugged the three of them. Clarke smiled back, returning the embrace, finding herself having missed Hermione's quiet and smart company over the summer. 

"You'll have to tell me all about your trip to your cousins' house" Hermione told Clarke, "But... Are Ron and Harry not with you?"

Clarke waved her head no, having no idea where the boys were. 

"Oh, here's Harry" Raven then suddenly said, pointing to the young boy who was walking towards them with Hagrid by his side. 

"What happened to you?" Clarke asked the boy after their quick embrace, asking as much for his absence this summer than for his current appareance, as he was covered in a thin layer of dust. 

"First time using floo powder" He just shrugged. 

"Oh" Clarke chuckled, "My first time was quite something, too."

They didn't have time to talk more as Ron, Percy, Fred, George and an older woman who looked like a feminine version of the twins were quickly coming their way. 

"Harry dear, where have you _been_ ?" The woman said, quickly taking a cloth out of her pocket and starting to rub Harry's face, "I was worried sick, we thought we heard you wrongly pronounce the words, I feared you might have go down to a darker place!"

"Where did you come out?" Ron curiously asked his friend. 

"Knockturn Alley" It was Hagrid than answered, and judging by the look of his face, he wasn't really pleased with this outcome. 

"Dear Lord" The woman sighed, finishing to clean up Harry's glasses and giving them back to him. Only then the woman seemed to realise there were new people around, so she curiously looked at Clarke, Octavia and Raven. 

"You remind me of someone" The woman then narrowed her eyes at Octavia, probably trying to remember where she could have seen the girl. 

"I'm Octavia" Octavia introduced herself, "Octavia Blake."

"Ah, that's why your face is familiar" The woman offered her a gentle smile. "I'm Molly Weasley. Your brother Bellamy came over to the Burrow a couple of times with Fred and Georges."

Octavia nodded, knowing her brother had indeed spent a couple holidays with the Weasley twins. The Weasleys' father, Arthur, introduced himself too, and Clarke was finding that Ron was definitely looking like a younger version of his father. 

"I'm Raven" Raven then said. "I'm friend with all those idiots." She gestured to all of them, just before Clarke could manage to elbow her in the stomach to keep her from saying stupid stuff. Molly Weasley smiled at Raven, and then directed her attention to Clarke, who hadn't introduced herself yet. 

But at the second Clarke opened her mouth, Molly's eyes grew bigger as a gasp escaped her. "Arthur" The woman murmured, shaking her husband's arm, "Could it be..?"

"Hum, I'm Clarke..." Clarke barely managed to say, uncomfortable under the couple's eyes as they were looking between Clarke and Aska, sticking close to the Blonde's legs. 

"Griffin" Arthur Weasley whispered, finishing the sentence for her, then seemed to realise what they must look like to Clarke and quickly apologizing. "I'm sorry" He said, shaking his head, "It's just that... It's just like you look _exactly_ like him. Your father."

It was Clarke's turn to gasp. "My father? You knew my father?"

"Jake, yes" Arthur gently smiled to her, before looking at his wife, probably silently asking her if it was ok to continue talking about that, "We went to school together. A very kind man. One of the best I knew."

Clarke only nodded, not trusting her voice not to break if she was to speak up. 

"And I presume this is... Aska?" Arthur Weasley gestured to the dog as he was barking in confirmation. Clarke only nodded, not asking how he seemed to know, too, as everyone was always telling her Aska himself had told them his name. 

"We knew your mother, too" Molley smiled to Octavia, "Aurora. I guess she was pregnant with you, when we last saw her."

Octavia threw a surprised look at her friends, because she didn't have a lot of intel on her mother, only that she had died when Octavia was around six or seven years old; Bellamy had never really talked about her, either. 

"Weird." Ron then cut into the heaviness that had seemed to fall around them. "Let's go buy all this crappy stuff and go home, ok?"

They all agreed, waved goodbye to Hagrid and headed to the bookshop. 

"You're okay?" Hermione whispered to Clarke, who still looked a bit shocked. 

"Yeah, I'm ok" Clarke nodded. "I just... It's weird, isn't it? Finding out that so many people seemed to know about us, and our parents" She gestured to Raven and Octavia, "When I didn't even know I was part of this world until last year."

"Yes, it _is_ weird" Hermione agreed. "But it also mean you _belong,_ doesn't it?"

Clarke hummed, finding that Hermione was right. It was indeed making her feel like she belonged somewhere. Like she wasn't just a lost kid without a past; like there suddenly was a purpose for everything that had happened. 

"Maybe you could talk with Harry about this" Hermione said as they were walking. "I think he feels like this too, sometimes."

Clarke nodded, her too knowing that Harry must have those kind of feelings too, after just recently finding out that everything he had believed in until last year had been a lie. 

* * *

"Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry asked the group after Ron had explained to them that this shop specialised in selling enchanted muggles objects and everything related to the dark arts. "Malefoy and his father."

"Did Draco buy anything?" Raven enquired, "He could be planning some sort of evil prank."

"No, his father, Lucius I think?" Harry said as Arthur Weasley nodded in confirmation, "His father was selling something."

Selling?" Arthur repeated with a smile on his face, "So he's worried. Good."

Clarke threw a questioned look at her friends, as Ron started explaining. 

"Dad works for the Ministry of Magic, he's a specialist with enchanted muggles objects" The readhead told them, "He makes sure nothing of the wizard world ends up in the hands of a muggle. But wizards have a bad habit of enchanting almost everything, so he has a lot of work."

Clarke nodded, figuring out it was making sense to have a departement taking care of those things, because a magic object, used by an oblivious muggle, could be dangerous. Clarke could very well imagine a muggle accidently play chess with a wizard chess set and hurting himself in the process. 

"So what happened to you anyways, Harry?" Clarke enquired, not having been completely filled in with the details. 

"It's hard to explain" Harry frowned, "But it appears that some house elf intercepted all your letters this summer. His name's Dobby, I think, and for some reasons he thinks I'm in danger and he wanted to keep me from going to Hogwarts. He said that if I believed my friends had forgotten about me, I wouldn't want to go back to school. Plus, my aunt and uncle added some fun to it by locking me inside my room."

"That's twisted" Clarke frowned at her turn, "You told us house elves had masters they were complied to obey to" Clarke then asked Hermione. "So Dobby couldn't have acted on his own behalf, right?"

"I don't know" Harry hummed, "Because he did seem like he was breaking rules to come over to warn me. Every time he would say something, he would want to punish himself."

"I don't know what's going on with this elf, but I think he might have gone crazy" Ron shrugged. 

"But maybe a part of what he said to you is real" Hermione suggested. "Maybe you _are_ in some kind of danger."

"I think I'll always be in danger, Hermione" Harry retorqued. "You know what happened back in June. He'll be back for me."

"Don't say that" Octavia tried to dismiss his words, although she knew very well, like the rest of them, that you-know-who wouldn't stop there and that it was probably a sign of darker times ahead of them. 

"I just wish I could learn more about my past, my parents..." Harry trailed off. 

Clarke sympathetically smiled at him; she, too, was sharing the same wish, and they both knew it. 

"Look, the library!" Raven then gestured ahead of them, "Why is there so much people around?"

* * *

They got closer to the library, and even Clarke could tell that much people around was not an usual thing. 

"I wonder what's going on" Octavia said, trying to look over the crowd. 

"Oh, Bellamy's back" Raven gestured ahead of them, "But... Who's with him?" 

Clarke frowned, as she and Octavia was trying to recognise the figure by his side. 

"It's... Woods" Octavia frowned too, not really understanding what her brother was doing with Anya Woods. Yes, they were in the same house in Hogwarts, but Bellamy had always said they were two very different persons and that Anya wasn't one of his friends. 

"Lexa?" Clarke asked, her heart jumping slightly in her chest although she didn't really know why. 

"Nope" Raven denied, "The older one. Anya." 

"Oh" Clarke said, wondering what Anya Woods could be doing in Diagon Alley. Although the question was stupid, really, because she was probably here to buy furnitures for school, too. Clarke briefly wondered if Anya being here meant that Lexa was around, too, but once again that was quite the stupid question because Lexa and Anya seemed to live two very different lives from each other. 

She didn't have time to think more about it though, as their friends were dragging her into the library. 

"Who's the little red-head?" Raven then pointed to the young girl by Molly Weasley's side, who clearly looked like a tiny girl version of Ron. 

"My sister, Ginny" Ron sighed, "Mom always wanted a daughter, and was very disappointed when I was born, discovering she had had yet another son."

"I am sure your mothehr was pleased to have you" Hermione offered him. 

"Yeah, well my sister's the girl she always wanted, so..." Ron shrugged Hermione off, although everyone could see it was still uspetting him a little. 

"Look, it's him!" Hermione then exclaimed, cutting off their discussion. "Gilderoy Lockhart! He wrote most of the booklist"

Clarke frowned, looking to whom Hermione was pointing to. A man, with a smile as wide as his face and teeth so bright she was wondering if they had been whitered by magic or something. "Look! We can actually meet him!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing at a large sign hanging over Flourish and Blotts. 

Watching as Ron was rolling his eyes at their friends, they made their way into the book shop, squeezing shoulders into the queue. 

The man was slowly coming in front of the crowd, still smiling. Then, he seemed to fix his eyes on someone - Harry. He stared a few seconds, then his smile widened so much Clarke feared for a second he was going to tear his face in two. 

"It can't be..." Lockhart murmured, slowly walking towards them, "It can't be Harry _Potter_!" 

Immediately, whispers were filling the room as the crowd was parting to make way to the man, who grabbed Harry by the arm and hauled him in front of everyone. 

"Quick, take a picture!" The man asked to the photographer that was a few feet from them. "Ladies and Gentlemen, now is the perfect time to tell you of a great news!"

Clarke frowned, looking at their friends who shrugged back at her, not knowing what it could be. 

"Harry and his comrades will, actually, get the real _Magical Me_ , as I am going to teach Defense against the Dark Arts in Hogwarts! Yes, that's right, you heard well!"

The crowd turned wild, and Clarke chuckled at the enthusiasm Hermione and Ginny were showing. Then, a hand brushed against her arm, and Clarke jolted slightly to the side, not having expected the touch. 

"Do you fancy him, too?" A voice murmured to Clarke; Clarke recognised it on spot without having to turn around to see the stranger's face, and could even distinguish the slight irony in the words. 

"I don't know" Clarke hummed, trying to keep herself from smiling, "He's rather handsome, isn't it?"

The person behind Clarke scoffed, and the Blonde chuckled. 

"He's way too old for me, Lexa" Clarke said gently said, turning over so she was facing her friend. "I thought I would see you around. We spotted Anya, earlier."

Lexa shrugged. "I never go here, usually."

That's when Clarke took in Lexa's appareance; she was very a long coat with a hood, put over her head but not too much so her face was still visible. Clarke recognised Beauxbatons' coat of arms on it, and Lexa's name embroided under it. 

"Are you _not_ supposed to be here?" Clarke then asked her. 

Lexa chose not to answer right away, biting her lower lip instead. "Let's say I shouldn't spend too much time in crowds."

Clarke accepted the explanation, knowing full well Lexa wouldn't say anything else about it. 

"Hi Lexa" Hermione greeted her once she had managed to tear her eyes off Lockhart, "We weren't expecting to run into you today". 

"I was only here for a couple of minutes" Lexa only answered. "Bye, Clarke. See you in Hogwarts."

And the next second, Lexa was gone into the crowd. 

"Really, she's weird" Raven commented. "I mean, don't get me wrong Clarke, but she _has_ to be the weirdest friend you hever made."

"First of all" Clarke answered, "I'm not _that_ sure she can be called a _friend._ Second, I'm friend with the two of you. I'm collecting weirdos as friends."

Raven jokingly punched on the arm, as they got back to the Weasleys, as Molly was buying her kids' books. 

* * *

They were almost finished as Draco Malfoy suddenly came into view, already dressed up with his Hogwarts coat and wearing his usual superior anooying face. 

"Bet you loved being the center of the attention, Potter" Malefoy sneered. "You can't even enter a bookshop without making noise."

"Leave him alone" Ginny said, surprising the group, as Ginny had never talked in front of Harry before. 

"is this your _girlfriend_ , Harry?" Draco mocked him, "Be careful, this one might bite."

"Go away, Malfoy" Clarke said through gritted teeth. 

"Oh, you're there, too" Malfoy pretended to be surprised, "I thought they would have expelled you by now. You know, with being crappy at using magic."

Ron started going to Malfoy, almost hoping a re-match of the fist fight he had gotten into with Dracon back to a Quidditch match last year, but was stopped by Arthur Weasley, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. 

"Come home guys, it's mad in here, let's head outside" Ron's father said. 

But they didn't have time to walk away, as another man was coming into view. Clarke immediately understood he was Draco's father; blond hair so blond he seemed almost white, same distaindful eyes; truly, Malfoy was a younger version of his own father. 

"Arthur Weasley" The man trailed off. "Busy time at the Ministry, I heard, with all those raids. I hope they're paying you overtime?"

Then, he reached into Ginny's cauldron, taking out a worn-out version of a book she would need for her first year. 

"Obviously not" Malfoy sneered, "This book looks like it's going to turn into dust if you open it."

Clarke watched as Arthur Weasley turned red as he was ready to plant his fist onto Lucius Malfoy's nose. But Hagrid was there, out of nowhere, in a couple of seconds, and put himself between the two, stopping the fight before it had even began. 

Lucius Malfoy threw the book back to Ginny, and in an instant, he was out of the book, Draco on his step. 

"Try to ignore him" Hagrid sighed, talking to the Weasleys' father. "Rotten to the core, this family, you know that. No Malfoy's worth listening to."

They quickly headed out of the shop, heading for the Leaky Cauldron where The Weasleys and Clarke's people would go back to their houses. They parted with the Grangers, Hermione's parents, who had joined her, as they had to head out to the muggle street. 

* * *

"We'll see you soon then" Ron said to Octavia, Clarke and Raven. "Almost time to go back to school."

"Yeah" Clarke smiled, "Have fun and enjoy the rest of the summer. You too, Harry."

"You'll be better with the Weasleys than with your stupid aunt and uncle" Raven chuckled.

P

"Definitely" Harry smiled back. "Although I'm sad we didn't get to see each other this summer."

"It's ok. We'll have plenty of time back in Hogwarts" Octavia winked at him, pulling at her two friends as they had to find Bellamy before they could go home. 

Then, the Weasleys and Harry went through the chimney and disappeared from sight. Clarke and her friends only had to wait a couple minutes before Bellamy was entering the Leaky Cauldron, Anya Woods on his toes. 

"What he is doing with Anya?" Octavia wondered, watching as the pair was coming closer to them. 

"Well, they're friends, so..." Raven shrugged, not really seeing the problem. 

"No, I mean, look at them" Octavia nudged her chin towards the pair, "It's like they're discussing something."

"or more like arguing" Clarke corrected, frowning as both of them were coming towards them, hands flying around as they seemed to be having a deep conversation about something that was seemingly upsetting the both of them. 

Finally, they reached the trio, and whatever had taken place before was gone. 

"Great, all of you are here" Bellamy greeted them, "We can go home."

Then, he turned over to Anya, who kind of looked upset still, and he sighed, quickly putting a hand on her arm and lightly squeezing before getting closer to her sister. 

"Remember what we talked about, Anya" He murmured, kind eyes scruting the brunette's face. "I'll see you in Hogwarts."

Anya simply nodded at him, and left the Leaky Cauldron. 

"Ok girls" Bellamy sighed again, and Clarke noticed he looked older; like he had aged three years at once in the last week. "Let's go."


	4. The Whomping Willow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is back at Hogwarts for their second year. Where are Ron and Harry?

** Chapter 5 : The Whomping Willow **

Summer has finally reached his end, as Clarke was paking her suitcase with everything she would need for the upcoming year in Hogwarts. Sighing at the pile of mandatory books she had to bring to the school, she had resignated herself to reduce the number of non-essential books she wanted to carry; her suitcase, unlike wizards', wasn't extensible. 

"Alright Aska" Clarke spoke to her dog, "I think I'm done. What you do think is waiting for us this year?"

Aska quietly barked as if he was giving his opinion, and Clarke pensively nodded. "A troll again?" She wondered at loud, "Please, Universe, don't make us face a troll again."

Clarke sighed again for what seemed like the hundred time in the day. It was not that she didn't want to go back to school, because she was happy to go back and actually looking forward to it; it was more that with everything that had taken place this summer, Clarke was sad she wouldn't see her cousins until at least next december, maybe even longer if Lexa didn't ask for her to come along to her trip to France, or if Dumbledore didn't want Clarke to leave the castle. 

Maybe her cousins would invite her over, Clarke hoped. After all, they seemed to appreciate her as much as she was appreciating them. As she was putting a pair of gloves Nathalia had discreetly given her this summer - Quidditch gloves, the girl had explained - there was a knock on the door and Octavia was coming into the room. 

"You're all packed?" Octavia asked, "Raven need our help to choose her leg."

"What the hell" Clarke sighed, "That's a very weird way to talk about her prothetic. Kinda sounds like we're putting up organs' traffic or something."

Because Clarke's mom was a doctor, they had been able to find Raven a couple of prothetics, which they had twisted a bit with magic so she could almost walk as good as she was walking before. It was always tugging a bit at Clarke's heart though, because even if everyone had kept repeating to her that she wasn't responsible, a part of her couldn't keep herself from carrying the blame on her shoulders.

"Clarke" Octavia called up to her, having noticed the foreign look on her friend's face. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" Clarke weakly asked, although she perfectly knew what Octavia was talking about. 

Octavia sighed, and came to sit on Clarke's bed as the blonde was closing her suitcase. 

"You are like Bellamy" Octavia gently told her friend. "You are driven to protect us. But the world doesn't turn around you, C. Things happen, bad or good, and you don't always have a part in it."

"I know that" Clarke hummed. "It doesn't make it any easier to accept."

"I know" Octavia nodded, then getting up. "I know you probably miss your cousins, too" Octavia added, in a more quiet voice. "I... I know we are your family, but still. I understand you want to know more about them."

"Octavia..." Clarke started, trying to think about a way to comfort her friend. 

"No, I'm not saying this as a reproach" Octavia quickly corrected, "I only mean that..." She paused, figuring out the best way to say what she was feeling. "I _know_ we are family. You, me, Raven, Bell... That will never change." The Brunette explained. "But you have other people now, too. It's ok to want other things, C."

Clarke only nodded, not trusting herself to speak at loud, and quickly rushed to hug her friend. Because Clarke couldn't explain it; the way she was drawn to her cousins, even Lexa... Like there was more to this life than what she knew about it; like _she_ was meant to be more. She was just really glad Octavia could understand that it didn't mean the end of their friendship. 

"Come on" Octavia smiled, releasing Clarke from the hug, "Let's get going."

* * *

The next day, Clarke, Octavia and Raven were standing on the 3/4 platform, waiting for the train which would take them to Hogwarts for their second year. Bellamy had drove them to the station, but had left to find his friends. Then, Clarke spotted Hermione, coming towards them, a content smile on her lips. 

"Hi girls" Hermione greeted them, "I'm kind of excited to go back, aren't you?"

"Yeah, kind of" Octavia nodded, sharing the feeling. 

"Aren't the boys with you?" Hermione frowned, looking around them to try and spot them. 

"I don't know" Clarke shrugged, also finding it weird that they were nowhere in sight yet as the train was set to leave in five minutes, "We didn't see them yet. Maybe they've stepped into one of the top wagons or something."

Hermione hummed as an answer. Then, the big clock ticked, noticing them the train was about to leave. 

"Oh, look, the Weasleys Twins are all the way up front" Raven pointed to them, spotting the two familiar redheads, "Ron and Harry must be with them."

"Alright let's get onto the train" Clarke moved them forwards, "They'll meet us in it."

Quickly, they jumped onto the train, and entered an empty wagon, big enough so that Harry and Ron could sit with them too. 

"Clarke" Hermione started, "Did you start to read the book about..."

"Alright nerds" Raven suddenly interrupted them, nudging Octavia so she would get up with her, "O and I are going to buy some snacks because we're _not_ going to listen to you two talk about books already without sustenance." She opened her hand to Clarke. "Clarke, give us money."

Clarke's eyebrows rose. "Why do _I_ have to give _you_ money?"

"It's because of _you_ we need food in the first place" Raven shrugged as if it had been the most logical answer, "Plus, you're loaded and you're like our personal bank."

Hermione looked at Clarke with an incredulous look as the Blonde only sighed, getting out some coins from her pocket and giving them to Raven. 

"See you in a bit, loser!" Raven exclaimed, and quikly got out of the wagon with Octavia in toes. 

"I've known you for a year now" Hermione hummed, "But I still find that your group dynamic is strange."

Clarke laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. But I've known them for so long now, I don't remember a time when I was without them. They're family."

"Speaking of family" Hermione added, making herself comfortable on her seat, ready to listen to Clarke."How was France?" 

A light smile made its way to Clarke's lips without even her trying. "Great. And peaceful. Easy."

"I can tell" Hermione gently smiled back, noticing how Clarke seemed content with what had happened during the holidays. "I bet your cousins were happy to see you again."

"Yeah" Clarke nodded, "I met their younger brother, Timothé, whom I hadn't seen yet" The Blonde told her friend, "Turns out he's only a year younger than us! Like Ginny, Ron's sister."

"So he's closer to us than any of your older cousins then" Hermione did the math. 

Clarke hummed in confirmation, although her being younger than her cousins hadn't affected their relationships in a any way. 

"Will you go to Beauxbatons again this Christmas?" Hermione curiously wondered. 

"I don't know" Clarke truthfully said, "I mean, I would love to if it meant I could spend some more time with my cousins, but then again I don't look forwards to add two more weeks of class to myself."

"I guess you're right" Hermione chuckled, then spotting the necklace Clarke had hanging around her neck. "Did Diana told you more about your necklace?" 

"No she didn't" Clarke sighed, "Nathalia told me Diana never talks about it, so I'm not sure Diana actually _knows_ something about it" Clarke shrugged. "Nathalia only told me that our necklaces had once belonged to some of the earliest wizards or witches in the Griffin family tree, and had been passed down generation to generation ever since."

"So Diana receives hers from...." Hermione trailed off so Clarke could finish the sentence. 

"Her mother" Clarke completed. "Louison, a very nice woman. Our grandfathers were brothers, so my father and her mother were direct cousins."

"So her mother gave her the rose necklace, and you got yours from your father?" Hermione asked, making sure she had correctly understood. 

"Yes" Clarke confirmed. "Nathalia thinks each stone has a significance. Like Diana's stone, quartz, means protection, peace, stuff like that."

"And what about yours?" Hermione inquired. 

"Nathalia didn't know anything about mine" Clarke answered, fidgeting with her necklace. "She only knows that the necklaces somehow know who they are supposed to belong to" Clarke told her friend. 

"Like wands" Hermione hummed. 

"Yes, like wands" Clarke nodded, echoing the discussion she had had with Nathalia one night. "They're supposed to be passed-down to every first-born girl..." Clarke trailed off, then frowning, thinking about something she hadn't thought of before. 

"What is it?" Hermione frowned too, having noticed Clarke's mood shift. 

"My father" Clarke explained, "He is an only child, he doesn't have an older sister. So how can it be he still inheritaded the necklace?"

"That's weird" Hermione answered, "Maybe the necklace passed down to him, but never properly worked with him?" She suggested, "A bit like my wand wouldn't properly answer to you if you were to use it?"

"Maybe" Clarke hummed, turning the red stone in her fingers, "Apart from glowing next to another Griffin member, who knows what those necklaces do anyways."

Hermione shrugged, and their conversation came to an end. 

* * *

The train started slowing down, as Raven, Octavia, Clarke and Hermione were growing more and more anxious. 

"Where are they?" Hermione asked for what was probably the hundredth time, "They should have found us by now."

"I don't know" Clarke shrugged, "But I do agree that it's weird."

"Well come on, maybe we'll spot them on the platform" Raven nudged them forwards. 

"Aska, can you smell them?" Clarke murmured to her dog, looking in the crowd trying to have a glimpse of their friends, "Can you find them?"

But Aska didn't move, and Clarke sighed, thinking that maybe her dog didn't understand her after all. They were silent the whole ride, everyone thinking about what could have happen to the boys. As silently, they went into the Great Hall, sitting down at their houses' tables waiting for the sorting ceremony. Like the previous year, Dumbledore gave them the annual speech - the gang noticed he didn't forbid them access to the third floor this time, meaning that Fluffy was out of the castle - and they listen and cheered as students were being sorted by the hat. 

"Ginny Weasley!" Professor McGonagall then exclaimed, calling a little readhead to the stage, as the girl looked half-anxious hlaf-excited. 

"Look, it's Ginny Weasley's turn" Octavia said, excited to see if Ron's sister was going to get into Gryffindor like the rest of her siblings. 

"Of course she is going to be a Gryffindor, she's a Weasley" Georges then suddenly appeared. 

The sorting hat had not even touched Ginny's hair that it was screaming into the Great Hall. "GRYFFINDOR!"

As for every other kid that had made it into the house, Gryffindors students roared their pleasure at having the seventh and last member of the Weasley family in their house. Clarke, Octavia and Hermione cheered with the rest of them, sending quick smiles to Ginny as she walked back to their table, a proud smile on her face. 

"Too bad Ron didn't get to see his sister being sorted" Octavia stated, "He would have been so proud we would have heard it for at least two weeks."

"True" Hermione hummed, claping as the next student was sent to Ravenclaw. "Which house to you think your cousin will join, Clarke?" She then asked the Blonde, "What's his name again?"

"Timothé" Clarke answered with a light smile, although she was kind of sad she would never get to see a family member being sorted - "I don't know really, but he will inevitably be sorted in one of his sisters' houses, as Beauxbatons only have three houses."

Hermione hummed, always interested at learning more things about other schools. "So, which sister does he look like most?"

"He truly _looks_ like a mix of the three" Clarke shrugged, "But he tends to _be_ more like Jade, I think."

Then, dinner was magically served, at they quickly ate, dying to be able to leave the room to find out what had happened to Harry and Ron. From afar, Clarke spotted Anya, seemingly in deep conversation with Bellamy and a couple others that Clarke thought were named Miller and Atom, both Serpentars. By Anya's side sat a much more smaller girl, who looked like a first-year, but who looked like she knew Anya already by the way the girl was invested in the conversation with the rest of them. 

"O, did you remember this girl being sorted?" Clarke asked her friend, discreetly gesturing to the little girl next to Anya Woods. 

"Hm?" Octavia frowned, then turning over to spot the person Clarke was refering to. "Oh, this one" Octavia hummed. "I think that's Tris Woods. Bellamy told me about Anya's cousin who was coming to school this year, so that must be her."

Clarke thanked her friend, curious about why Lexa had never mentioned Tris in her couple letters this summer. And even Tris being here was weird, because Lexa had said her whole family was French and then, was supposed to go to Beauxbatons to school. Clarke frowned; speaking of Lexa, where was she? Clarke glanced around, trying to spot her friend - again, if she could say there actually _were_ friends - but failing as Lexa didn't seem to be here at all. Where could she be? Hadn't she come back from France already?

* * *

They were just finishing dessert that Raven came to sit by Clarke's side, munching some piece of fruit. 

"Any news from the boys?" Raven inquired. She, too, had spent the evening scanning the room looking for their friends. She had asked a couple of questions around, trying to find out if anyone had seen them board on the train or get to the castle, but no one had seen anything expect a couple of rumors. 

Hermione shook her head no, now very worried about them. 

"I did hear something" Raven then admitted to the group. "Some say they were expelled for crashing a flying car into a tree."

"What in the world...?" Hermione trailed off. 

"Didn't Ron say they had broke Harry out of his uncle's in their dad's magical car...?" Clarke then asked. 

Hermione loudly sighed, already tired with all the trouble Ron and Harry were always getting into. 

"I hope nothing bad happened" Octavia murmured, "I mean, Harry did say some _weird_ things had happened during the summer..."

Clarke shrugged, not wanting to alarm them more than they already were. "Let's go to the dorms. Maybe we'll have answers there."

They all agreed, Raven getting up to join them, as they started walking towards the Gryffindor Tower. 

That's when they spotted them; Harry and Ron, looking at the painting of the fat lady like they were lost. 

"Here you are!" Hermione exclaimed, running the few meters that were left to reach them, "Where have you been?"

"We've heard rumors" Octavia added as Clarke was quickly scanning their bodies, trying to figure out if they were hurt in any way. Reassured that they were fine, she raised a brow in a silent question. 

"Well..." Harry started, but didn't have time to finish his explanation as Hermione was cutting him off already. 

"Don't tell me you actually _flew_ here" Hermione stared at them, unimpressed. 

"Just tell us the password" Ron sighed, already tired at what he knew would be a Hermione Granger's specialty; lecturing them. 

"It's wattlebird" Hermione rolled her eyes, "But it's not the point!"

She didn't talk more as the portrait opened, giving them entrance to the tower, as Ron was pulling at Harry's sleeve, dragging them to the boys' dormitories. 

"We'll talk about this later Hermione" Ron quickly said, "We're going to bed because we're exhausted, see you tomorrow!"

And a second later, they were up the stairs and out of sight. 

"Boys, I swear" Raven sighed, then winked at her friends and exited the tower, going back to her own - where she should have been all along. 

Clarke, Hermione and Octavia stayed silent a couple of seconds, the knowledge of their friends being safe settling in, and soon after, all three of them were under their covers, soundly asleep. 

* * *

In front of the main door, Lexa was tightening her coat's collar around her neck, the light September breeze sending shivers to her whole body. Without speaking, she waited for the men to unload her suitcases, which she knew would be waiting for her in her dormroom. She turned around, internally sighing and readying herself for the lecture she was about to have in a couple of seconds. 

"Heda, I beg you one last time to reconsider" Titus said, draped in a long black coat. "This is not wise."

"Nothing is wise, Titus" Lexa only answered. 

"You are too exposed here" Titus added, trying to make her change her mind. "Anything could happen, and you know that."

"And you know that anything could happen _anywhere_ " Lexa said through gritted teeth, tired of having heard the same words all summer. 

"Why do you insist on this?" Titus probed again, himself, too, tired of fighting her on this matter. 

"Because that is my place" Lexa told him. "I know you mean well. But going back to Hogwarts is my decision."

Knowing that Lexa wouldn't change her mind, Titus only nodded, not having any other reasons than to accept her choice. 

"Very well, Heda" He slightly bowed his head in acceptance. "I will see you in December, then."

Lexa nodded her goodbye, and then started walking to the castle. 

"Head, I forgot!" Titus called after her seconds later, "The twins have arrived."

Lexa's mouth corner raised a little as the doors were closing behind her. 

* * *

The next day, they were all sitting down for breakfast, and as the way Hermione was acting with the boys, she was still quite disapproving of their arrival yesterday. Harry and Ron had explained what had happened, and none of them, not even Hermione, had a logical explanation for the passage closing right before they got through, when it had worked seconds earlier for every Hogwarts student. 

"Who's the _thing_ that visited you this summer again?" Clarke asked, trying to make sense of it all. 

"An house elf, Clarke" Hermione almost rolled her eyes, remembering just in time Clarke wasn't familiar with the wizard world and that she hadn't used the word "thing" to mock the creature. 

"Dobby, he said his name was" Harry reminded them. 

They stayed silent, each of them trying to figure out why an house elf could have barged into Harry's life and why. Then, all eyes were up; postmail was on its way, as various owls were making their way through the Great Hall, carrying messages and packages to the students. 

A heavy package fell down onto Neville's head - Clarke tried very hard not to laugh - as an owl suddenly fell down in front of them, looking more dead than alive. 

"Errol !" Ron exclaimed, probbing him with his finger as the owl seemed to be unconscious. "Oh no." Ron suddenly turned white. 

"It's ok, I think he's still alive" Clarke tried to reassure them, mistaking his pale face for the fear of the owl dying. 

"It's not that" Ron weakly showed them the red card attached to one of the owl's legs, "It's... This."

Clarke frowned as Octavia was passing her a couple of letters destined for her, looking at the red enveloppe which looked exactly like it ; a red enveloppe. Throwing a glance to her friends, Harry looked a bit lost too, not understanding why, suddenly, all their friends had turned white like Ron. 

"What's the matter?" Harry asked as the rest of them were acting like a bomb was going to go off. 

"It's a howler" Neville murmured, not moving. 

"What's an howler?" Clarke frowned. 

But no one answered, as the letter was starting to fume from the sides. 

"Open it" Neville nudged him, "Or it'll be worse, I swear."

With a not very-determined hand, Ron shakily opened the letter as all their friends were putting their fingers into their ears. Clarke understood why a second later, as the letter started to scream in the Great Hall with Mrs Weasley's voice, speaking about the stealing of the magic car and the incident that happened after. 

A minute later, the yelling was over, and the letter had turned to dust as Ron and Harry were now looking red and mortified. 

"So... _that_ is a howler" Clarke concluded. 

"Yup" Octavia nodded, trying hard not to laugh at their friends' faces. 


	5. The American Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school year starts, and Clarke can't figure out why this clown is their new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Beauxbatons isn't far from her mind, and who are the new students?

**Chapter 5 : The American Twins**

McGonagall had just given them fresh timetables, and Clarke sighed at seeing they had Herbology with Hufflepuff first. She didn't really care about this class, in contrary to Neville - who seemed to _love_ Herbology -, but she was glad to see that once again, Slytherin would be the house they would be sharing Potions class again. Well, _glad_ wasn't really the proper word, but a part of her still was happy to know she would see Lexa often. Which was weird, in a way, because despite the last year and the letters they had wrote to each other during the summer, Clarke still couldn't say if their were friends or just pretending to be when they were away to Beauxbatons. 

"Clarke, who are the letters from?" Octavia then asked her, seeing that Clarke still hadn't opened the post she had received half-an-hour earlier, right before Ron opened the howler. 

"Well, one from my mother" Clarke read, turning the letter over and opening it. "She's checking that I made it to school alright. And she's sorry for not being able to bring me to the train station. _Again_ " Clarke rolled her eyes, not really caring that her mother hadn't drop her off; it's not like Clarke had learnt over the years to live without her mom being very present in her life. 

"This one's from Beauxbatons" Clarke said with a bit of surprise in her voice, not having expected to hear from the French School so soon, "It's the classes I'm supposed to attend to during Christmas holidays, and the homework I have to send them for September."

"Waw, that's a _lot_ of homework" Hermione stated, reading of Clarke's shoulder. 

"You'll help me, right?" Clarke asked her friend, half-joking half-serious. 

"Yes, of course" Hermione quickly nodded, enchanted at the prospect of learning new things. 

"Thanks" Clarke smiled back, then opening the last letter. "This is from Diana" Clarke read, a small smile slowly making its way on her lips, "Timothé made it to Papillonlisse, Jade's house. Diana said she's gloating." The Blonde chuckled, picturing her cousin being proud of her brother sorted in the same house, then frowned reading the next lines. "She's asking me if I met the american students yet, saying two of them have a surprise for me. Which american students?"

Ron and Harry shrugged, not having any ideas of what it could mean. 

"Your cousin is weird" Ron stated, taking another spoon of porridge in his mouth. Clarke shrugged too, half-agreeing with him, and quickly ate the rest of her breakfast as their first class was to start soon. 

* * *

Lexa was patiently waiting in front of Dumbledore's office, pacing into the corridor to keep her mind and body busy while waiting. Anya was there too, rolling her eyes every time Lexa was making a turn in the corridor. 

"Lexa, please stop this" Anya sighed after a while, "You'll make holes in the floor."

Lexa came to sat down next to her cousin, sighing too. 

"You're worried of her reaction." Anya stated to Lexa, her words not a question. 

Lexa only nodded. Things hadn't gone well last time she had kept a secret from her; and frankly, she didn't want her to be mad at her again. 

"She will undestand" Anya told her. "She is smart. Her cousin probably already told her about them, anyways."

Lexa hummed, not really convinced by Anya's words, but not having another choice than to believe her cousin was right. 

"Who else is with them?" Anya then asked. 

"I don't know their names" Lexa answered. "But they're older than the twins."

Anya nodded as the door from Dumbledore's office suddenly opened, the four american students getting out. 

"Lexa" One of them said, recognising the girl. "It's been a long time."

"It has" Lexa agreed, holding her hand for them to shake. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"So" Said the girl who looked exactly like the one who had first spoke, "Where's our cousin?"

* * *

"Greenhouse three today, students!" Professor Sprout, their Herbology teacher, told them as Gilderoy Lockhart was kind of explaining how he was better at taking care of a whomping Willow that she was - which she didn't seem happy at all. 

Clarke rolled her eyes, remembering their first encounter with the new Dark Arts teacher, and went to sit next to Octavia in their classroom. 

"Cool, Greenhouse Three" Neville murmured to them, that's where they keep more dangerous plants."

"Alright class" Professor Sprout told them, "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me about the Mandrakes properties?"

To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand shot up and was the first one in the air, and to Clarke's surprise, she herself thought she knew bit of the answer, having read about it last year in Beauxbatons' Herbology book while working on another paper. 

"It is used to return people who have been cursed to their original state" Hermione said, as usual sounding like she had learned the whole book by heart. 

"Excellent, ten points for Gryffindor" Professor Sprout said, looking proud of Hermione - as all teachers, maybe except Snape, were -. Clarke shot a grin to her friend, who also looked proud of herself. 

"The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

Hermione's hand almost hit Harry's glasses as it shot up again. 

"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it" Hermione quickly answered. 

"Precisely" Professor Sprout said, "Take another ten points for Gryffindor."

"I swear it's her hearing her voice answering all the questions that's fatal" Ron mumbled under his breath speaking of Hermione, but not quiet enough so Hermione wouldn't understand. The girl threw him a dark glance, as Clarke was nudging him with her elbow. 

"Try to be half-smart as she is, Ronald, and we'll speak about it" Clarke joked to him, glad when he had the decency to look guilty of his previous words. Hermione shot a grateful nod to Clarke, as Octavia was fake-rolling her eyes. 

"I swear, if you want to be best friend with Hermione instead of us, tell us now, so we can be over with watching you two send heart-eyes to each other" Octavia quietly joked to Clarke as it was the Blonde's turn to roll her eyes. 

"Stop it" Clarke groaned. "Not you too."

Octavia sent her friend a warm smile, making Clarke understand she was only joking about it and not actually worried about Clarke being a close friend to Hermione. 

"The mandrakes we have here are very young" Professor Sprout then continued to speak, showing them a hundred little plants in pots, making Clarke wonder what Hermione had meant by "cry" of the Mandrake. 

"Clarke" The Professor then adressed to her, "I am sorry, but Aska can't wear earmuffs, so he needs to go wait outside of the room."

Clarke nodded, a weird feeling settling in her stomach at the knowledge of her dog not being by her side - Aska never left her side, he was like a shadow, constantly with her, and she didn't even remember a time where a four-legged friend wasn't always walking by her. 

"Aska, go find Lexa" She bent down to quietly adress her dog. "I'll find you after."

Aska huffed, clearly not happy with having to leave Clarke's side, but did as he was told, and jogged out of the room. 

"Ok then, everyone take a pair of earmuffs" The teacher said, handing them over. "When I say so, you put them on, adjust them properly and make sure your ears are completely covered, alright? Don't remove them until I tell you it is safe."

Then, she nodded for them to put them on. They shut off every sound, Clarke noticed, as Mrs Sprout was grasping one of the plant and firmly extracting it from its pot; next to her, Clarke saw Harry gasp, and franckly, Clarke was close to do the same; at the end of the plant, what should had been roots was a kind of weird little creature clearly screaming at the top of its lungs, although she couldn't hear it. Professor Sprout, as calm as someone could ever be, quickly put the screaming thing into a bigger pot, burying it under new compost until it was completely covered again. Then, she gave them the thump-ups to remove the earsmuffs, which they did, not very sure how to feel about what they had just seen. 

"Our mandrakes are still young, so their cries won't kill you" The teacher explained, "But they can totally knock you out for a couple hours if you're not careful enough. Group up in fours, please."

They did so, Ron, Hermione and Harry grouping with a curly-haired Hufflepuff student, Justin Finch-Fletchley, if Clarke had heard well, who seemed to be very fond of Harry. With Octavia, Clarke was paired with Neville and a Hufflepuff girl Clarke had only seen a couple times. Earmuffs were back on their ears a couple minutes earlier, and they spent the next hour taking out screaming and yelling mandrakes from their pot and shoving them onto bigger ones; and as much as the mandrakes didn't like being torn apart from the earth, they didn't like being put back down in it, either. At the end of the class, Clarke was exhausted, sweaty and with a growing headache. Weirdly, another feeling was starting to grow in her, one she couldn't quite explain. 

Finally, Professor Sprout told them it was safe to remove the earsmuffs, and Octavia, who knew Clarke well, immediately noticed something was off with her friend. 

"Clarke? Is everything ok?" Octavia quietly asked. 

"I don't know" Clarke hummed, "I feel like... Something's missing?"

"I see" Octavia's face turned to a worried one to an amused one, "I know why."

Clarke raised a interrogative brow, not knowing what her friend was thinking of. 

"Aska" Octavia chuckled. "Aska's not there, and somehow, you must feel it."

Clarke frowned, not really understanding how could it be possible to _physically_ feel someone's absence; but then again, she didn't even really know what was Aska, so everything was still possible. 

"Come on" Octavia nudged Clarke, "We have Transfiguration Class with MacGonagall next, Aska will find us on the way". 

Clarke nodded, they waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione, and left the classroom. 

* * *

"She doesn't know about it yet" Lexa told the two girls who looked almost exactly the same. "So maybe it's better if I...."

Lexa's course of words was stopped as she spotted someone familiar jogging up to her. 

"Aska" Lexa frowned, immediately closing the distance with Clarke's dog, "Why are you here? Isn't Clarke with you?"

Worried, Lexa took a glance into the corridor, trying to see if Clarke was following Aska a few feet behind; but the dog was alone. Then, Lexa noticed that Aska didn't seem worried at all; on the contrary, he only lied down next to Lexa's feet, perfectly content and calm, waiting for Lexa to move so he could follow her; something he was doing only with Clarke. Surely he would have barked, if Clarke was in any kind of danger, right? 

"So that's..." One of the girl trailed off, pointing to the dog. 

"That is Aska" Lexa nodded. "Clarke's dog."

"Everyone knows that he is definitely _not_ a dog" One of the girls snorted. 

"Well, Clarke doesn't know that" Lexa retorted, "And does _not_ need to know it."

The girl who had just spoken raised her hands in submission to Lexa's clear orders, not wanting to offend her before their semester in Hogwarts had even started. 

"Why is he not by her side?" The other girl asked, "He is not supposed to guard her at all times?"

"I don't know" Lexa frowned, "He never leaves her side, unless she's on a broom or something."

"A broom?" The girl raised her eyesbrows, "Does she play Quidditch?"

"Not yet" Lexa denied, "But maybe this year. The Vinys have been training her ever since they met her, I think."

"Of course they did" The girls chuckled. 

"Let's go this way" Lexa gestured, "Dani, you have Transfiguration Class, with the Gryffindors. Clarke'll be there."

* * *

Clarke was waiting in front of McGonagall classroom, a bit worried, as Aska hadn't come to find her again. 

"Calm down, Clarke" Octavia gently smiled, "He'll be there."

Clarke absently nodded, her eyes still glued to the end of the corridor, dying to see her dog come running at anytime now. She didn't have to wait long, because seconds later, Aska was coming into view, happily barking and running straight to Clarke's side, lapping her fingers a few times and sitting next to her. 

"Hi boy" Clarke whispered, now reassured - more than she could admit - that he was fine. Clarke then spotted Lexa, coming towards them, with a girl Clarke had never seen before; could it be one of the American students Diana had talked about in her letter? 

"Why wasn't Aska with you?" Lexa asked Clarke without even saying hello first. 

"Hello to you too, Lexa" Octavia was quick to call her on it. 

Lexa only threw a glance at Octavia, not caring about the girl's antics, and focusing once more on Clarke, waiting for the Blonde's answer as to why her dog had left her side. 

"We were repotting mandrakes" Clarke explained to the Brunette. "Aska couldn't be here. I told him to go find you."

Lexa only nodded, now secretly reassured that nothing bad had happened to the Blonde, and a part of her glad that Clarke was trusting her with looking after her dog when she couldn't. But as the class was about to begin, McGonagall got out of the room, wanting to see what was delaying Octavia and Clarke's arrivals into her class. 

"What is it? Why are you not taking your seats?" McGonagall asked, then spotted the new girl. "Oh, you must be Danielle."

"Danielle from Ilvermorny school" The girl nodded. "I am set to follow Gryffindors' courses?"

"Yes, I have been informed of your arrival" McGonagall confirmed. "Come on then, quick to your seats." She gestured for the three of them to enter the room, only sending a glance to Lexa as the teacher was probably wondering why a Slytherin would find herself in this corridor in the first place. 

"Everyone, quiet" McGonagall asked for them to stop talking, "This year, Hogwarts will receive abroad students from the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the American school. Danielle here will follow your courses like a Gryffindor student. You will take her in like one of your own. Understood?"

All the students nodded, now very curious about this new girl they hadn't been told about before today. 

Now that they were supposed to turn a beetle unto a button, Clarke was finding herself having forgotten everything she had learnt the previous year, and judging by the desperate look Harry had just sent him, he was probably thinking the same, too. Octavia nudged Clarke's elbow, discreetly pointing to Ron, who seemed to be spending an even far worse time than them. He had tried to fix his wand - broken when Harry and him had ran into the Whomping Willow - with some tape, but it didn't seem to be working very well, as it kept sparkling at odd times, and there actually were a few times Clarke feared he was going to blow up the whole classroom. 

All of them were relieved to find out it was lunch time. The rest of the students hurried out of the room, as Hermione was busy showing Professor McGonagall her perfect little coat buttons. 

"Maybe you should write home and ask for another wand" Harry suggested to his friend. 

"Yeah, and receive another howler? No thanks" Ron scoffed. 

"I received an howler once" A new voice said, making Clarke jump as she hadn't seen her walk up to them. "Awful memory."

Clarke looked at the new girl who was holding a couple of books under her arm; pale skin, light brown hair, she had one blue eye and the other one was green. Along with her american accent, she didn't look much older than they were; which was probably true, if she was to follow their courses. 

"Danielle, right?" Octavia then asked the girl, offering her hand so the other girl could shake it. 

"Everyone calls me Dani" The girl smiled back. 

"I'm Octavia" Octavia introduced herself, "This is Clarke. Harry and Ron" She gestured to the boys, "And Hermione over there, talking with McGonagall."

"Nice to meet you all" Dani answered, shaking all of their hands, sending a tiny smile to Clarke, making the girl slightly frown. 

The group offered the new student to join them for lunch, to which she agreed. During the whole walk it took them to go back to the Great Hall, Clarke could feel Dani's eyes on her; weird, right? 

They settled to their tables, and a couple of minutes later, Raven came to sit with them. 

"Did you meet the american students?" She asked her friends, "There is one in Ravenclaw, but older than us."

"That's Dani" Octavia pointed to their new friend, "She's Gryffindor now."

"I'm Raven" Raven introduced herself, "I'm friend with those weirdos."

"The american in your house is named Gaia" Dani said. "She's a fourth year." She paused, thinking about something, now looking at Raven, in her Ravenclaw clothes. "So you have friends beyond your own houses?" Dani raised a curious brow. 

"Well, we've known each other before we came to Hogwarts" Octavia explained to Dani pointing to Clarke and Raven, "But as Raven is always hanging out with us, she's friend with Harry, Ron and Hermione too."

The trio nodded, confirming Octavia's words. 

"We're just _not_ friends with Slytherins" Ron mumbled, sending a dark look to their table, "They are not worth being friends with."

"Not all of them, Ron" Hermione gently scolled them, sending a small smile to Clarke, "Some of them are nice, I'm sure." She then said to Dani, not wanting the girl to have bad impressions of the Slytherin without even knowing them. 

"Why are they not worth it?" Dani wondered at loud. 

"They are ambitious, would do anything for the glory" Ron quickly said, not leaving time for any of them to respond. 

"We kind of have a house like that in Ilvermorny, the Wampus" Dani hummed. "They are the warriors, never backing down. They represent the body."

"That's interesting" Hermione piped up, closing one of Lockhart's books she was currently reading, "How many houses are there anyways?"

"Four, like Hogwarts" Dani answered. "Mind, Body, Soul and Heart of the Wizard"

"That's one way to see it" Ron chuckled. 

"Just because you can't understand something doesn't mean it's stupid" Hermione retorted, getting out their timetables so she could check their next class right after lunch. 

Ron send an innocent look to the rest of them, wondering what it was that he had done -again - to offend her this time. Then, he quickly took Hermione's timetable from her hands. 

"Why have you outlined all of Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?!"

Hermione snatched her timetable from Ron's hands, blushing furiously, as Octavia, Harry and Clarke couldn't help but giggle onto their hands. 

"Who is Lockhart anyways?" Dani asked. 

"He's a great..." Hermione started. 

"He's a man who pretend to have done great things but only cares about the way his hair looks" Ron cut her off, rolling his eyes at Hermione looked ready to debate on that. "Come on Hermione, admit it."

"Not his fault he's a handsome man..." Hermione grumbled, opening her book again and buried her nose in it. 

Ron pretended to gag et his friend's words, making the rest of them laugh again. 

* * *

It was still nice outside, so Clarke and her friends decided to go enjoy the sun for a while before having to go back to class. Lying on the grass, Harry, Ron and Clarke were talking Quidditch as Hermione was still deep into her book, and Octavia and Dani busy discussing the differences between life in England and America. 

Then, a shadow slid over Clarke's body, blocking out the sun. 

"Clarke" The voice said. 

"Lexa" Clarke looked up, having recognised the voice. "What's up?"

"I was wondering..." Lexa started, only interrupting herself to quickly glance at Dani -which Clarke found weird, but didn't call Lexa on it - "I was wondering if you had a minute. To talk."

"Sure" Clarke nodded, getting up, although she was kind of curious what it was that Lexa wanted to discuss. 

"So, you've received Beauxbatons' homework, right?" Lexa asked her. 

"Yes, this morning" Clarke nodded, "You did too?"

"Yes" Lexa confirmed. "Did you got word from your cousin?"

"Diana?" Clarke asked, curious about why Lexa would ask about it, "Yeah she wrote me, telling me about Timothé's house sorting, and asking if I had met the American students yet."

"About that" Lexa suddenly started looking nervous, "I..."

But Lexa was cut off by a not-nice voice, a few feet from them. 

" _Signed photos_?" The voice sneered, "You're giving out signed photos, Potter?"

Clarke easily recognised Draco Malfoy's mean voice, and turn around, seeing that Draco and his two comparses were, Crabbe and Goyle, standing next to Clarke's friends and a young boy Clarke didn't know. 

"Everyone stand in line!" Draco was almost screaming outside, "Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"

"Shut up, Malfoy" Clarke threatened him, quickly walking back towards their friends, Lexa right behind her. On the floor, Aska had put himself closer to Clarke, showing his teeth, probably waiting for any sign of danger to Clarke before he could attack this stupid and loud blond boy. 

"You're just jealous" The boy piped up - whom Clarke would learn later was Colin Creevy, a Gryffindor first year. 

" _Jealous_?" Malfoy shouted even more than he already was, "Of _what?_ I don't need to cut my head open to be famous, thank you."

"Eat slugs, Malfoy" Ron angrily answered, getting his taped wand out. 

"Potter, Wealsey would like a signed photo" Malfoy continued to sneer as a bunch of students were now listening to the exchange, "It'd be worth more than his family's whole house."

Ron quickly raised his wand at his words, but Dani, sensing that it wasn't the first time this blonde boy was causing trouble, was quicker. In a flick of a hand, she had somehow unbuttoned Malfoy's pants, the whole thing falling to his feet, and his face turning red in a second. He grabbed his pants, put them back and ran away, his two bullies running with him. 

Clarke gasped and quickly looked at Dani; surprised by what had just happened in a second, none of the others had seemed to figure out Dani was the one responsible for it. But for Clarke, it was clear. She knew what she had done. Extra-corporal magic. 

"How...?" Clarke whispered, although she didn't have time to ask any questions as Dani was quick to discreetly put a finger to her lips, silently telling Clarke not to say a word about it. 

"Watch out!" Hermione suddenly closed her book, gesturing to someone coming their way; Gilderoy Lockhart. Quickly, they took off, not wanting to have to explain what had happened. On their way to their next class, Clarke spotted Lexa walking behind her and suddenly remembered that she had been trying to talk to her about something; that would have to wait, because now, Clarke had a thousand questions about and for the new girl. 

* * *

"So, to business!" Lockhart exclaimed once every student was settled, putting a large case onto his desk, "I am here to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in the room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

"What the hell" Octavia murmured to Clarke and Dani, sitting between them, as Lockhart was dramatically taking off the cover on the cage. They were sharing this class with Slytherins, and Malfoy was constantly making faces behind the teacher's back as he was waving around the cage. 

"Do not scream" Lockhart whispered, "Or it might provoke them. Freshly caught Cornish Pixies!" He said, as creatures about eight inches and an electric blue color were starting to shake the cage's bars. 

Seamus Finnigan, the boy who always seemed to make everything go boom, couldn't help but snort at the sight of the little creatures which, if Clarke was honest, didn't really look harmful - but Clarke had learned very quickly how looks could be deceiving. 

"Don't find this funny, little mister" Lockhart said with a smirk on his lips, "Now, let's see what you make of them!" and he opened the cage. Instantly, the pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Letting out little screams, they were throwing books and tearing their pages around, pulling at the girls' hair, making the paintings on the walls fall - and even tore a few of Lockhart, for Hermione's great despair - , spraying bottles of ink all around the students' robes... 

"We need to do something!" Clarke shouted over the mess to her friends, as Harry, Ron and Hermione were trying to make their way to Dani, Clarke and Octavia. 

"Come on, round them up, round them up!" Lockhart kept saying to the screaming and panicked students, "They're only pixies!"

A couple times, he raised his wand, shouting some spell into the air; but nothing ever happened, and one of the pixies suddenly grabbed his wand, throwing it out of the window another pixie had just previously broken. Lockhart dived under his desk as he clearly looked overwhelmed by the situation. The bell then rang, and every student was running towards the exit as fast as their legs could carry them. 

"You!" Lockhart then pointed to Clarke's group, getting out from under his desk and running towards the stairs leadign to his office, "You're in charge of putting them back in their cages!" And a second later, he was out of the classroom and back in his office, closing the door. 

"What kind of teacher is he?!" Dani exclaimed, trying to doge a pixie who was set on hitting her in the face. 

"The kind that doesn't control anything apparently" Octavia answered through gritted teeth, shoving one of the pixies away from her backpack and the food inside. 

"What do we do now?" Lexa asked, out of breath at having ran through the class to get to them. 

"He just wants to give us hand-on experience" Hermione shrugged, " _Immobulus_!" 

Suddenly, all the pixies stopped moving; floating in the air, calm was reinstaured into the room. 

"The freezing charm" Dani hummed, now able to grab two pixies and put them back in their cage, "Clever."

Quickly, the group had put every pixie back into their cell. 

"Don't forget me!" Someone then said. Surprised at the sudden voice and looking everywhere, they finally looked up; Neville was hanging by the collar to the candelabra of the ceiling. Clarke tried very hard not to laugh as Lexa was mumbling some spell to get him down without him hurting himself in the process. 

"Why is it always me?" Neville whined as Harry was sympathetically offering him his hand to help him get up. 

"They must have liked your long ears" A new voice said. 

Clarke gasped; the new student had the exact same body as Dani; in fact, they looked like clones, expect for their eyes color, which were reversed. 

"What the hell....?" Octavia murmured for the second time of the day. 

"Wait, there's two of you?" Clarke asked, very confused about what was happening in front of them. 

"This is Elena" Lexa quietly introduced the new girl. 

"And my twin, obviously" Dani rolled her eyes, as Elena was nudging her with her elbow. 

"You knew about this" Clarke narrowed her eyes at Lexa, who didn't look comfortable with the situation. 

"Clarke, may we speak..." Lexa started her sentence, but was cut short by the ring of the bell, signaling their next class was about to start. Clarke excused herself, and quickly left with her friends, leaving Lexa hanging - again. 

* * *

Anya was sitting at her usual table into the library, next to Bellamy and a couple of other fifth years students they were always hanging out with. 

"So, Gaia" Bellamy asked to the new girl, "From Ilvermorny, right?"

The girl, who had long braided hair and a dark skin, nodded. "Yes. I'm Horned Serpent."

"Which is...?" Bellamy asked for clarification. 

"Well, I think it would be your equivalent of House Ravenclaw" Gaia pensively said. "Although it is still a bit different. We are being associated with the head of the wizard."

"I see" Bellamy hummed. "And the other two with you, the twins?"

"Dani and Elena" Gaia nodded, "Both second years, different houses."

"Are they really...?" Bellamy trailed off, not wanting to say anything at loud. 

"Yes" Gaia somberly nodded, as if this intel was carrying great weight. "That is why we are here, isn't it?"

"She doesn't know anything yet" Anya informed the new student. "But Diana thinks she should."

"Diana really is in charge of everything, isn't she?" Elena sighed, as if it was hurting her to be under the older Viny sibling's command. 

"She's the best we've got" Anya stated, not wanting to give her opinion on the subject. "Until _she_ is old enough."

* * *

The next week passed by in a blur; on saturday, Clarke and their friends were eating breakfast in the Great Hall - well, except Harry, who had been woken up very early by Oliver, his Quidditch team's Captain. 

Yawning, Clarke was half-listening to Hermione tell them about one of the _many great things_ Lockhart had done and described in his books; Octavia, still groggy from her night, was lazily reading the newspaper as Ron looked ready to murder their talkative friend. 

Then, a few owls entered the room, dropping the mail - as every morning. One letter fell into Clarke's lap, as the girl quickly opened it up, seeing it was yet another letter from her cousins. Nathalia was writing to her this time; asking her if she had gone through Quidditch trials yet, and telling her about a few things she had to think of while trying to gain a spot on the team. Then, Clarke frowned reading the next lines. 

"You're ok, Clarke?" Hermione asked the Blonde, having noticed her friend's confused face. 

"I... I don't know" Clarke murmured, frowning again and paling a little, "Nathalia is asking if I met _our cousins,_ Dani and Elena...?"

Dani, about to bring a full spoon of cereals to her mouth, stopped moving at once, milk spilling on the table; then, sheepishly smiling : "Surprise..?"

They were quiet for a couple of seconds before all of them started to talk at the same time. 

"Wait, what?!"

"How many cousins have you got?!"

"What the hell dude?"

Dani was quick to shush them down so she could talk. "Ok, wait!" She stopped them, "Lexa was supposed to..."

"Lexa?" Clarke frowned again, "Lexa _knew_ about this?!"

"Well..." Dani started. 

"I am going to kill her" Clarke stated, suddenly very angry at the Brunette as she was beginning to get up to go find the girl. "Twice now, I swear if she keeps..."

"Woah, calm down Clarke" Dani stopped her from killing anyone and put an hand on her arm so she would stay on her seat, "Listen. We weren't sure we would be able to come to Hogwarts" Dani started to explain. "Then, Diana thought it would be a nice surprise."

"A _nice_ surprise?" Clarke exclaimed, raising her hands to the sky and trying to not cause a scene in the middle of the Great Hall, "How many of us are there?!"

"I don't know" Dani shrugged. "But more than this."

Clarke sighed, putting her head in her hands, suddenly very tired. "Why does this keep happening to me..." She mumbled. 

"I swear we were going to tell you" Dani then gently put one hand on Clarke's shoulder. "Lexa was supposed to talk to you about it first." 

"But..." Clarke sighed again, "Why Lexa? What does she have to do with all of this?"

"We've known her for a long time" Dani answered, "We were raised together for a couple of years. She was the one suggesting Elena and I applied for the student exchange this year, so we could meet each other."

"And here we thought you didn't have any family..." Octavia trailed off, herself too feeling the weight of the new revelation. 

"We didn't know about you either, you know" Dani offered a tiny smile to her cousin, "We only met the Vinys a couple of years ago. _Lexa_ was the one to link us all together, when she started in Beauxbatons."

Clarke nodded, staying silent while all the new information was settling in - or trying to. Because it sure was a lot to take in; first, she had discovered the previous year that she had four cousins, and now two more, out of nowhere? That couldn't make sense. 

"Clarke..?" Hermione then tried to gain her attention, a bit worried as Clarke hadn't said a word for a couple of minutes. 

"I'm fine" The Blonde sighed for the god-knows what time, finally shaking out of the state she was in. "I just... I'll go see Lexa, ok?"

"Ok, Clarke" Octavia offered her, "We'll meet you after."

"Yeah" Ron agreed, "We'll probably go see Harry practice anyways. Meet us to the pitch when you're done."

Clarke nodded, and left the Great Hall in search of the Slytherin Brunette. 


	6. The Slugs Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa talk about the constant apparition of new cousins for Clarke. Someone gets cursed, and some doubts appear about the future.

** Chapter 6 : The Slugs Festival **

Clarke was walking into the corridors, trying to find where Lexa would be; heading to the library, where she thought she would have more chances to find her, Aska by her side, Clarke then spotted Anya, walking towards her with a few Slytherin friends and Elena, Dani's twin, her other cousin. 

"Clarke" Anya said once she had reached the Blonde, stopping at her level. The older Woods studied Clarke's face for a couple of seconds, then noticed as the Blonde was starring at Elena, linking it together. 

"You _know_ " Anya stated, figuring out it was the reason why Clarke kept looking at her cousin. 

"Nathalia told me" Clarke nodded, although she didn't look very happy about it. "And Dani confirmed it, of course."

"Ah, Danielle, she could never keep a secret that one" Elena snorted. Clarke frowned at Elena's behavior; she seemed to be Dani's complete opposite in terms of personality, and Clarke didn't think that she would like this cousin much. 

"You are mad at Lexa" Anya stated again. How she knew, Clarke didn't know, but as Lexa was a very observant person, it wasn't _that_ weird if Anya was the exact same. Anya was fierce, Clarke had to give her that; and even a bit intimidating, dressed in her Slytherin clothes with a green tie hanging loose around her neck. Eyes green like Lexa's, everything about her was screaming pure strength of mind and body; and the Blonde could see why Bellamy respected the girl enough to be friend with her. 

"She has kept things like that from me before" Clarke answered, not finding it wise to lie to the older Woods.

"Don't blame her" Anya advised. "You are both very young, and Lexa doesn't know much more about all of this than you do." 

Clarke frowned but nodded, and started walking towards the library in search of Lexa. 

* * *

Reaching the library, Clarke watched as Aska began to wiggle his tail, now walking a little more quickly and leaving Clarke's side. Lexa was here; and Aska knew it. Clarke was still very intrigued about the reason why Aska wouldn't aknowledge any other person but herself and _Lexa_. Why Lexa? What did she have, that the others didn't ? 

Lexa was sitting at her usual table, nose deep in one of the books Clarke recognised as to be one of Lockhart's, and only took her eyes out of it when Aska gently nudged her leg with his nose. 

"Clarke" Lexa greeted her, and then, seconds later, figured out why the Blonde had come to see her. "You know about your cousins."

"Nathalia told me in a letter" Clarke said through gritted teeth, trying hard not to blow the Brunette's head off. Lexa looked around, trying to figure out where they could go so they could have this conversation somewhere else that in the middle of the quiet library and in front of dozen of studying students. She got up and grabbed Clarke's arm, leading her over to a corner of the library where they could freely talk. 

"I am sorry, Clarke" Lexa whispered, "I... Diana was supposed to tell you about them, this summer" Lexa tried to explain herself. "But we weren't sure they would be able to come to Hogwarts, and Diana probably thought it would be too much information for you to handle at once."

"These are intel about my _family_ , Lexa" Clarke incredulously retorted, "This is _vital_ information, which you hid from me, _again_!" 

"But I tried to tell you!" Lexa protested, "But something always came up and I..." Lexa hopelessly shrugged, not knowing what to say so the Blonde would believe her. 

Clarke frowned, now remembering that twice, Lexa had indeed tried to have a moment with her to talk in private. 

"Well, you should have tried harder" Clarke only said, crossing her arms on her chest; but her voice lacked bite in it. 

"Yes I should have" Lexa nodded, lowering her eyes. "And I'm sorry."

"How many more of us is there, anyways?" Clarke asked. 

"I don't know" Lexa answered, then, under Clarke's doubtful look: "I swear Clarke, I don't know" Lexa said, "I only linked the Vinys with Elena and Dani because I grew up around them for a while when I was younger, and then I met the Vinys in Beauxbatons and I connected the dots."

Clarke sighed, running a hand through her hair and looking tired. "Alright" Clarke sighed again, "But this is the last time, Lexa, okay?" Clarke said, "You can't keep lying to me like this."

Lexa quickly nodded, relieved to see that Clarke wouldn't stay mad at her. 

"I'm supposed to go meet the others in the Quidditch pitch" Clarke told her, "Wanna come?"

Lexa timidly nodded, and followed Clarke through the corridors, Aska walking proudly between the two of them. 

* * *

In Ravenclaw's main room, Raven was busy trying to magically mess with a piece of tech one of her housemate had discreetly brought from home. 

"So you're Raven Reyes?" A voice behind her said. 

Raven looked up, noticing a young girl standing in front of her, who was probably only a couple of years older than herself. 

"You're the american student joining Ravenclaw" Raven deduced, looking at the blue coat of arms on the girl's shirt. 

"I'm Gaia" The woman hold her hand for Raven to shake. 

"Raven, as you know" Raven shook her hand, offering her a smile. "What can I do for you?"

* * *

Reaching the Quidditch pitch, Clarke frowned; instead of Gryffindors players that should have been there, Slytherins were up on their brooms instead - which looked like to be brand new brooms. 

"I thought it was Gryffindor's training this morning" Lexa said. 

"It's supposed to be" Clarke only answered, looking around to find her friends. Then, Clarke looked at one of the broom riders, frowning again. "Wait, is that Draco Malfoy?!"

"He looks like him" Lexa agreed, not knowing what the boy would do on a broomstick. 

"He's our new seeker" A voice said behind them. The girls turned around as Bellamy was smiling at them. "He told us this morning."

"But, how?" Clarke asked, "The trials didn't even started!"

"His father bought them all brand new Nimbus Two Thousand One, so..." Bellamy shrugged, "But don't worry. He sucks at Quidditch."

Clarke nodded, sighing to know that money could even buy someone their way in, in the Magic World. "I was supposed to meet with the others here. Have you seen them?"

"Nope" Bellamy shrugged, "But I heard something about them going to Hagrid's, something about... Slugs?"

"Slugs?" Clarke raised a brow, looking at Lexa who looked just as lost as her, "Alright, we'll go see Hagrid. Later, Bell."

"Later, Princess!" Bellamy shouted out, walking away and joining his friends. 

"Princess?" Lexa asked as they started walking towards the Key's Keeper's house. 

"It's a long story" Clarke waved her off, not really looking forward to explain it. 

Ten minutes later, they were knocking on Hagrid's door. It was Octavia that opened the door, a weird expression written on her face. 

"O, what is going on?" Clarke asked straight away, knowing her friend too well to immediately notice something was off. 

"Well..." Octavia trailed off, letting them enter the little hut. 

Then, a gaging sound make itself heard, and Clarke frowned; Ron Weasley had his head bent over a small bucket, looking greener than a human should ever looked. 

"What the hell happened?" Clarke exclaimed, rushing to his side.

"You're vomiting _slugs_?" Lexa said then, frowning at the scene in front of them. 

"Please someone explain this" Clarke asked, wincing as Ron was expulsing yet another slug into the bucket, her medical knowledge not enough to know what to do in this _particular_ situation. 

"Better out than in" Hagrid cheered, as if nothing about the current situation was weird nor alarming. 

"Ronald tried to cast a spell on the boy you call Malfoy" Dani started to explain. 

"He called Hermione something" Harry continued, looking at both Clarke and Hagrid. "And it must have been bad, because everyone went mad."

Clarke frowned, not very happy at her friend being called names. 

"It _was_ bad" Ron managed to say between two slugs, looking even more sick by the words said by Malfoy than from vomiting slugs. 

"He called her a _mugblood_ " Dani somberly finished. 

"He did not!" Hagrid suddenly got up, his face red with anger, growling, as Clarke noticed Lexa had the same furious look on her face. 

"He did" Hermione nodded, "Although I don't know what it mean. I know it must be something bad, but..."

"This is the worst insult a wizard could do to another" Lexa murmured, almost as if the simple fact of explaining it was painful. 

"It is a foul name to refer to someone Muggle-born, someone born from non-magic parents" Dani continued the explanation of the term so that Harry, Hermione and Clarke could understand. 

"Some families, like Malfoy's, think they are better than everyone else because they're what people call pure-blood" Ron gasped, his head coming out of his bucket. 

"Well that shouldn't be a thing" Clarke retorted, "Neville's born from two magic-parents, and yet he kind of sucks at magic."

"And they haven't invented a spell Hermione _can't_ do" Hagrid added to cheer up the girl a bit, making her blush in the process. 

"It's a disguting thing to call someone" Dani sighed. "Almost everyone is half-blood anyways, because wizards would have died out if they hadn't marry muggles at some point."

"I don't blame you for trying to curse him, Ron" Hagrid stated, "But maybe it's a good thing your broken wand backfired. We wouldn't have wanted Lucius Malfoy to storm into the school asking for repairment over his son throwing out slugs."

"Maybe that would have done him some good" Octavia grumbled. 

They chatted for an hour or so, waiting for the spell to fade, then they decided it was time to go back to Hogwarts for a bit of lunch, as the weird coffee Hagrid had offered them hadn't been very appealing nor nutrishing. 

Ron had finally stopped throwing up slugs - which was good news - and they were now reaching the Great Hall were tables had just been filled with lunch food. 

"I must go back to my house" Lexa told Clarke, "I'll see you later."

Clarke nodded, watching as Lexa was walking away towards the Slytherin table, sitting down next to Anya and the girl Clarke remembered to be Tris Woods, Anya's cousin. 

They sat down, as Dani lightly nudged Clarke with her elbow. "So, you're friends with Lexa?" She asked. 

"I guess so" Clarke hummed. "She's... I don't know. Distant. Unreachable."

Dani quietly chuckled, having known Lexa since they were little kids, and agreeing to what Clarke was saying. "I can say she likes you."

Clarke raised a doubtful brow at her cousin, not really convinced. 

"Well, maybe not _like_ you" Dani chuckled, rolling her eyes, "But she doesn't hate you as she hates everyone else."

"How can you know that?" Clarke snorted, her eyes not having left Lexa's sight for the last five minutes. 

"I've learned to read her a bit" Dani shrugged. "I can tell."

"If you say so" Clarke chuckled, then focusing on her meal as McGonagall was going towards them. 

"What did we do again" Clarke heard Octavia quietly sigh, as professor McGonagall seemed to not be here by chance. 

"Potter, Weasley" She said, "Your detentions will take place this evening."

Ron groaned, having forgotten about it, as Clarke deduced it was their punishment for having flown a car into the Whomping Willow. 

"Weasley, you'll go polishing the trophees. Potter, you'll spend your detentions helping Professor Lockhart with his fan mail." McGonagall stated, and a moment later, she was gone. 

" _Fan_ mail? Why me?" Harry stressed, "Why can't I go polish trophees too?"

"Well, you should be proud" Hermione shrugged, "Maybe Professor Lockhart requested you specifically."

"Yeah, sure" Ron rolled his eyes, fed up with his friend being _in love_ with their teacher. 

"You should have more faith in him" Hermione retorted, "Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job..."

But Hermione was cut off by Raven, plopping down on the bench next to Octavia. "He was the _only_ man for the job" Raven snorted, "I've heard it's beginning to be hard to find Dark Arts teachers; everyone seems to think it's jinxed or something."

"I really don't want to spend an hour with him" Harry sighed, defeated. 

"It'll go quick" Clarke offered him, "Just let him talk on his own and you'll be fine."

* * *

After having spent their Saturday afternoon in the library doing homework, the night started settling in and Ron and Harry left for their detentions, both not looking forwards to it. Octavia suggested they go chill in the common room, and surprisingly, Hermione agreed without protesting or telling them they needed to study for at least another hour. 

Clarke, not having finished one of her papers for beauxbatons, told them she was staying for half-an-hour more, and Dani offered to stay with her to keep her company. 

Then, a group of Slytherin entered the library; Bellamy and Anya with a couple of others, and Elena, who passed by them, throwing an unimpressed look their way. 

"I dont think your sister likes me" Clarke whispered to Dani. 

Dani chuckled, shrugging at the same time. "She's complicated. She may not show it, but she's very curious about you."

"No she's not" Clarke snorted, because judging by the girl's attitude, she wanted everything except get to know Clarke better. 

"We are very different" Dani told her, "But she's the most important person in my life. With time, you'll see."

Clarke hummed, not very convinced; but again, she was learning she shouldn't trust first impressions and that people could surprise you anytime, whether you perfectly knew them or not at all. 

"I was wondering, how close cousins are we?" Clarke asked Dani. 

"Well, not that close" Dani chuckled, "We're distant family, really. It goes back to our gran-gran-gran fathers, who were brothers."

"Oh" Clarke said, "So our common ancestor lived like, one hundred thirty years ago?"

"Basically, yes" Dani let a little laugh escape. "That's also one of the reason Elena is a bit... You know" Dani shrugged. "Curious."

"Both your parents are magic people?" Clarke then asked. 

"Yeah" Dani nodded, "Everyone in the family tree is."

"You mean...." Clarke trailed off, thinking about what they had talked about earlier, in Hagrid's hut. 

"Yup" Dani confirmed Clarke's thoughts, "We're one of the few last pure-blood families. Even though I don't like that term."

Clarke didn't know what to think of it; after discovering she was a witch only the year prior, it was something else to discover that her entire family was magic too, and that all of it had been kept hidden from her. 

"I know that everything must be hard to take in" Dani then gently offered to her cousin, "But believe me Clarke, we're as much in the dark here than you are."

"So who knows?" Clarke helplessly asked, "Who's pulling the strings? None of this is a coincidence."

"I don't know" Dani quietly said, "I don't know, Clarke."

* * *

They got back to studying in silence, but as nothing of what they were doing seemed to be productive, Dani and Clarke called it a day, and joined their friends into Gryffindor's common room where Raven was currently telling all of them a great - and epic, she would say - story, standing in the middle of the room and waving her arms around as if she was on a stage. 

"Isn't that girl Ravenclaw..?" Dani asked, frowning as to why a Ravenclaw student would be founding herself in the Gryffindor tower. 

"She is" Clarke chuckled, gesturing to the couch so they could sit and listen to the girl, "but Raven can somehow go wherever she wants without ever get in trouble."

Dani hummed, amused by Clarke's friends; it seemed like her cousin had a real life here, some very good friends she could call family. And as Dani was left frowning at the thought of Clarke calling her friends _family_ , a part of her knew they were all way closer than Clarke actually was with her _real_ family.

"And then, he started throwing up slugs!" Raven exclaimed, mimicking Ron couples of hours later, "Yes ladies and gentlemen, _slugs_!"

Clarke busted into laughter, as Dani and Octavia and the rest of the Gryffindor students in the room followed her. 

"You weren't even _there_ , Raven" Hermione exclaimed, trying to sound offended but failing as a joyful smile was written so clearly on her face. 

"It doesn't matter" Raven grinned at them, "Because _I_ tell the story better."

Clarke shook her head at her best friend, wondering what her life would be like if Raven wasn't in it. Next to them, Hermione had noticed the distance in Dani's eyes, as if the girl was lost deep in her thoughts. 

"Dani?" Hermione whispered, and then, seeing that the girl hadn't heard her, "Danielle."

"Hm?" Dani finally got out of her thoughts. 

"Where did you just went to?"

"I..." Dani said, then sighed, knowing it would probably be pointless to lie. "I just wonder if Clarke needs us. In her life, I mean" Dani explained, "She already has a family."

Hermione frowned. "What do you mean?"

"She was fine, before all this" Dani quietly said. "And now, every year since she discovered she was a witch, we break a little more of her equilibrium. Maybe it would be better, for her, to be kept in the dark."

"You know that it is not what _she_ would want" Hermione gently chuckled. "I may not know her for as long as Octavia and Raven have, but I can tell you, nothing's more important to Clarke than family. Whether it's old or new."

"This is going to rock her world" Dani murmured again, eyes lost far away and thoughts filled with what was to come. 

"Hm" Hermione nodded, her great mind already beginning to sense that there was more to Clarke's story than the one they already knew. A bit like Harry's, Hermione had a feeling her destiny was only just starting to go towards a greater goal; a greater fight. 

"She's strong. She'll make it." Hermione offered Dani. "And all of us will be there by her side."

Dani hummed, suddenly wishing her sister was there by her side, so the prospect of the future ahead of them would seem less scary and dark. 


	7. Whispers In The Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry hears ghosts and someone hides hearing them too. But are they really ghosts? It's already Halloween, and things turn a bit weird at the school.

** Chapter 7 : Whispers In The Walls **

Sunday morning found the Gryffindor students - and Lexa and Raven - sitting at breakfast and listening to Harry tell them about his detention with Lockhart the evening before. 

"I swear, my lip sports cuts all over after having licked a thousand letters" Harry groaned, still visibly exhausted from his task, a haunted look in his eyes. 

"Not as bad as my arms are hurting after having polished every single trophee" Ron sighed, lightly massaging his muscles. 

Then, Clarke frowned, observing her friend; Harry seemed a bit distressed this morning, and she was doubting it had to do with his punishment last night. 

"What's up, Harry?" The Blonde asked. 

Harry sighed, figuring out it made little sense to hide what had happened to him last night.

"Yesterday" The boy started with a quiet voice, "When I was in Lockart's office, I heard something. Like a voice, something that chilled me to the bone" He continued. "Whispering terrible words."

"Like what?" Lexa suddenly tensed up, eyes focused on Harry. 

"Hum, things like _come to me, let me rip you..."_ Harry told them exactly what he had heard. 

Lexa then suddenly got up, leaving the Great Hall at once as if she was in some kind of hurry, not even telling them a single word. 

"What the hell...?" Octavia frowned, watching Lexa's silhouette disappear from sight, sending a questionning loko at Clarke. Clarke frowned too, but shrugged, not having a single idea as to why Lexa had suddenly left like this. 

"Really, it was scary" Harry started talking again, keeping his voice low so others couldn't hear him. "And Lockhart didn't hear it."

"Really?" Ron raised a brow, "And you say there was no one else in the room?"

"That is weird" Hermione hummed, "Because even someone invisible would have had to open his office's door at some point, for you to hear the voice."

"I don't get it" Octavia said, wracking her brain to find a logical explanation. 

"Well, I don't get it either" Harry sighed, still feeling a bit dazzled by the event. 

Clarke put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, trying to convey that they believed him, even if it wasn't making sense for now. In a corner of her mind, Clarke was finding herself wondering why Lexa had left in such a hurry after Harry's words, her mind now set on getting explanation out of the girl. 

* * *

October was already upon them, and with it, the return of the cold wind and big raindrops whenever they would set foot outside the castle. The pumpkins Hagrid had been growing since the beginning of the school year were now of a giant size, and Clarke was swearing every time Aska and her needed to go outside for a run or a long walk. On the other side, the artist in her was completely in love with fall and upcoming winter; the colors in the trees were beautiful, and for the first time in a long time, Clarke found herself wanting to paint again. During her long walks with Aska, she had explored the Castle surroundings a bit - as the lake borders were now completely covered in mud, making them impracticable on foot - and had discovered some cool stops she made a mental note to take her friends to, once Spring would be back again. 

The only thing that hadn't been tempered by the hard weather was Gryffindor's Quidditch Trainings, which would make Harry spend hours under the rain, coming back soaked to the bones and shivering with cold almost every day after classes. 

Speaking of Quidditch, trials had taken place a couple of weeks ago; at first, Clarke had thought about going through them and integrating Gryffindor's Team as a Chaser, but had then thought otherwise - to the great dismay of Jade, Timothé and Nathalia Viny, her French cousins - and hadn't apply to the team. Diana had asked her why, not understanding Clarke's choice at first either, but after Clarke's explanation, had also thought that it was the most logical thing to do. 

The thing was that Clarke liked Quidditch; but she loved the fact to _fly_ on a broom more than actually _playing_ the game. And she was good on a broom, thanks to all the training her cousins had put her through last summer; and she had felt like she would be stolen someone's place, someone that would be more enthusiastic than herself to play. Figuring out that she would be able to go fly around on a broom on her own soon enough, she had refused the offer from Oliver - Gryffindor's Quidditch team's captain -. 

Diana had then told her she would be able to play in Beauxbatons for a game or two, when she would visit, the foreign students always given the possibility of playing in Quidditch teams when on visit in other schools. 

Surprisingly, it was Raven that had made it into her own House's Quidditch Team; revealing herself to be a great beater and having amazing abilities on her broom - even with her prosthetic -. With Clarke, they trained on evenings when Raven didn't have training with Ravenclaw; and it was something they shared, only the both of us, that made them grow closer and finished to quiet Raven's fears about losing Clarke. 

Clarke lost sight of Lexa for a while, not seeing her around at lunch and dinner times, neither in the library, before learning that the girl had been sick for the past week; Clarke had gone see her at the infirmary, as the Slytherin girl was forced into taking Madam Pomfrey's remedy, alongside Giny Weasley, Ron's sister, who didn't look good either. After that, Lexa and Clarke had gone back to their last year's routine, studying together in the library on Beauxbatons' homework. Dani had joined them, herself too having to do Ilvermorny's homework on top of Hogwarts. And as if they had started a dynamic, soon all of their friends would find hanging together and studying. Raven came too, alongside Gaia, an Ilvermorny fourth year student now under Ravenclaw colors. 

Sometimes, when it was too chilly to study into the library, everyone - except Lexa, who still looked a bit sick - would head out to the Gryffindor Tower, where two couches and three armchairs were now always left free for Clarke and her group. On some late evenings, the Weasley Twins, Fred and Georges, would show them little tricks they had just invented. 

On one night, Raven and Harry weren't with them yet as their teams were training against each other, so the gang was waiting for them in Gryffindor's common room to start their board game together. Soon enough, both of them were entering the secret door, soaked to the bone and tropping little puddles of mud on the floor. 

"Just wait until you hear what happened" Raven grinned at them once she was inside, getting rid of her wet coat as Octavia was throwing a towel at her face, "We've just avoided a detention by Filch". 

"We went into his office" Harry added as Fred and Georges jumped from the couch they were sitting on, now very interested in Harry and Raven's tale. 

"Did you retrieve some of our stuff?" Fred eagerly asked, as Georges was adding "There's a whole drawer for us, in there."

"We saw" Raven chuckled, although there was mischief in her eyes that let Clarke wonder if the girl had indeed taken something from the said drawer. "Oh, we were all invited to Nick's Deathday Party."

"What now?" Clarke raised a brow. 

"A deathday party" Harry explained, "Like his birthday, but for the day he died."

"Charming" Hermione muttered. "When is it?"

"On Halloween's feast" Harry sighed. 

"And you promised you'd go, haven't you?" Octavia chuckled. 

"Well _I_ didn't" Raven scoffed with a grin, amused at Harry's face. 

"We'll _all_ go" Hermione stated. "A promise is a promise."

"Hey, I didn't promise anything!" Ron protested. 

Hermione nudged him into the ribs, Clarke quickly putting her hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing. 

"He's your friend" Hermione frowned at Ron, "So you'll go with him."

No one tried to disagree with Hermione, and then it was settled. 

* * *

Halloween came soon enough, and with it, the Deathday party the group was now _not_ looking forward to, as every other student was excited about the school party. Even though Hermione had reminded them that _a promise was a promise_ at least a hundred times over the past week, it was with sighs and barely-concealed lack of enjoyment that they all headed towards the dungeons where Nearly Headless Nick, one of Hogwarts' ghost, was hosting his deathday party. Raven had stayed behind with Dani, as a lot of stairs was still a bit of a challenge for Raven's brace - to her great pleasure on this particular occasion - and as Dani had to stay with her sister for the night, having to deal with Ilvermorny-related stuff. 

As everywhere in the school, the passageway had been lined up with candles, although it didn't create the same atmosphere than in the rest of the school. Shivering under her cloak as the temperature seemed to drop every step they were taken, Clarke found herself wondering why they had agreed to it in the first place; and _why the hell_ had it to be in a dungeon?

Then, they spotted Nick standing in front of a doorway, waving them inside as he bowed to them with his hat, somehow surprised they actually had come. The room was filled with thousands of hollowed silhouettes, drifting around; Clarke gasped, not having seen that much ghosts at the same place. But again, why on Earth was she finding herself in a ghost party?

The group wandered around the room a bit, careful not to walk through any of the ghosts and mindful not to hurt their feelings. Suddenly, Hermione made them turn around, her face suddenly paler than it had been seconds later. 

"What's the matter?" Octavia asked, looking around the crowd of translucid beings in search of a possible threat. 

"Turn around" Hermione hissed to them, "I don't want to run into Moaning Myrtle."

"Who now?" Clarke raised a brow. 

"She haunts the girls' toilet on the first floor" Hermione explained as they were walking towards somewhere else. 

"She haunts a _toilet?"_ Ron snorted, finding it very funny, as Clarke and the rest of the group was trying really hard not to laugh. 

"Bell talked to me about her a bit" Octavia chuckled, "Says she spends her time crying and moaning."

"Wy does every ghost has to be crazy?" Ron grumbled. 

After having spent half-an-hour more into the dungeon, they quickly got bored of it - and were tired of being on edge every time one of the guests would stare at them for too long - and they found themselves out of the dungeons sooner than later. 

"Remind me to never accept anything from a ghost again" Harry sighed, once they were back under the warm candles of the castle. 

"Don't worry, I won't forget" Ron grumbled again, her feet numb with the humidity back in the dungeons. 

"Come on, pudding might not be over yet" The redhead hopefully told them as the group started to walk towards the Great Hall. 

But suddenly, Harry stopped them, looking everywhere in panic. 

"Harry...?" Clarke cautiously asked, as the boy was looking at the walls, 

"it's that voice again!" He said, "Shut up a minute!"

Clarke frowned and looked at Octavia who shrugged, because she hadn't heard anything either. 

"Listen!" Harry said again, looking at the ceiling, as Hermione and Ron froze, watching him with half-curious half-worried eyes. 

"This way!" Harry shouted suddenly, bolting into the corridor and breaking into a run towards the Great Entrance. 

"Harry, wait!" Ron called him in vain, and soon enough, the four of them were running after him like mad people, not knowing what had just gone through his head. 

The boy sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, his friends on his heels, then stopped. 

"Harry, what are we..." Hermione started before being cut off by Harry. 

"Shhhh!" He quieted them, looking like he was straining his ears towards something - or someone. They stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, none of them - except for Harry - hearing anything other than the faint whispers of the Halloween party back into the Great Hall. 

Suddenly, Harry paled, lurching forwards into a run again. "It's going to kill someone!"

He ran up to the next three set of staircases, going up three steps at a time, ignoring his friends' calls. 

"Harry come on" Clarke tried too, "What's going on?"

But Harry wasn't listening to them, as if something bad, _very_ , was happening right under their noses without them knowing it. 

Finally, Harry stopped running at the entrance of the second floor, the rest of the group panting and struggling to find their breath again. 

"Harry, what was that about?" Ron asked, "I couldn't hear anything..."

But he was cut off by Hermione's gasp, a trembling finger pointing to something ahead of them. 

" _Look_!" 

Something was shining on the stoned wall in front of them. Slowly, Clarke took a few steps ahead, Harry not far behind, trying to see what was on it. 

"It's words" Octavia whispered, squinting her eyes to try and read it. 

Some big letters had been drawn to the wall, at a place no one could have reached without getting on a ladder or something. 

" _THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE_ " was written, giving the group chills all the way to their necks. 

"What's hanging underneath...?" Hermione then pointed to something on the wall. 

As Octavia edged closer, she almost fell to the floor, slipping on a puddle of water near the wall. Clarke and Ron quickly grabbed her, stopping her from falling, as they all took a step back once they had figured out what was hanging on the wall. 

Mrs Norris, Flitch's cat, was hanging by the tail from the torch support. Rigid like it was dead, eyes wide opened like you could see in animals from taxidermy lovers, the sight was as frightening as the message on the wall. 

"Let's get out of there" Ron suddenly said, grabbing Hermione by the sleeve and pulling her back. 

"Shouldn't we try to help..?" Clarke murmured, although she didn't want to try to help at all. 

"Trust me, we don't want to be found here" Octavia mumbled, her too turning over to go away from what looked very much like some crime scene. 

But they hadn't taken two steps that it was already too late; footsteps resonated on the marble floor, as they immediately understood the feast had just finished; and as they seemed to have zero to no luck at all, soon enough thousands of students were coming their way, unaware of what had happened in the corridor. 

Suddenly, the chatter died as every student's eyes widened at the sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Octavia and Clarke standing in the middle of the way, feet soaked with the water on the floor, underneath Mrs Norris's dead body and scary writting on the wall. 

As silence fell upon them, someone shouted through the deep silence. 

"Enemies of the heir, beware! It's you, Mudbloods!"

It was Draco Malfoy, his pale face more vicious than ever, sporting a winked grin on his lips, eyes fixated on the hanging cat. 

* * *

Attracted by Malfoy's shout, Flich came running towards them, asking around what was happening; he hated seeing students, and Clarke found herself wondering more often than not why he was in charge of carekeeping in a children's school if he hated kids that much. 

He then spotted Mrs Norris, and his eyes widened in horror, choking back a sob. "My cat! My cat! What happened to her?!" He shrieked, his eyes immediately falling onto Harry and Clarke. 

" _You_!" He hissed, coming towards them with big steps, "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll...."

"Argus!" The man was cut off by a lower voice. Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster, was now making his way towards them, followed by a number of other teachers, all probably having heard all the shouting happening in the corridors. 

Clarke then spotted Dani and Raven in the crowd, frowns on their faces, as neither of them knew what had happened for their friends to find themselves in such a situation. 

"Come with me, Argus" Dumbledore ordered, "You too" He gestured to Clarke and her friends. 

Without exchanging a word, the group followed Dumbledore, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall into the corridors as they were heading towards the closest office - Lockhart's -. Then, Clarke quickly saw a figure she knew; Lexa, standing a few feet away from where they were passing by, looking paler than ever. The Blonde didn't have time to think about it though, as Dumbledore was closing Lockhart's door on them. 

Laying down the cat he had taken out of the wall on the desk, Dumbledore bent over it, studying it with application, as if trying to determine what had caused her current state. Sending each other anxious looks, Harry and the rest of the group were standing as still as statues, waiting for their sentence. 

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of Dumbledore mumbling spells in his beard and probbing the immobile cat, he spoke at last. 

"She's not dead, Argus" He softly said. 

"Not dead?" Filch gasped, "But why? Why she's all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been petrified" Dumbledore thoughtfully said, "Although how, I cannot say..."

"Ask _him_ !" Filch then shrieked, "Or _her_ !" Now pointing to Clarke. 

"No second-year could have done it" Dumbledore murmured, "It would take the Dark Arts the most advanced..."

"It's him! It's him!" Filch screamed again, his face distorded by the anger and the grief, "He did it! You saw what he wrote on the wall! He knows I'm... I'm a Squib!" 

"I didn't touched Mrs Norris" Harry argued, determined to have Dumbledore believe him, "We arrived and she was already like this! And I don't know what a Squib _is_ anyways!"

"Lies!" Filch shrieged again, "He saw my Kwikspell letter!"

"What the hell is he talking about?" Octavia whispered to Clarke, who shrugged, because she didn't have any idea either. 

"If I may, Headmaster" Snape then started to talk, emerging from the shadows he had been standing over, "Potter and his friends may have found themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time" He suggested, although there was a slight sneer in his voice, making Clarke thought he was actually doubting it, "But we do have suspect circumstances here. Why were they in the corridors in the first place? Why weren't they in the Halloween Feast?"

Clarke breathed out, relieved that they actually had an alibi for that, as they all started to tell the teachers about Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party. 

"But why not join the feast afterwards?" Snape questioned again, "Why go up to that corridor?"

At his words, Clarke knew they were screwed. How to explain that Harry had somehow heard voices in the walls, voices than no one else than himself had heard, and that they had chased the said-voices all around the castle like mad people? 

"We were tired and wanted to go to bed" Harry lied, athough everyone knew it wasn't the truth. 

"Without having dinner?" Snape smirked, knowing he was into something, "I don't think ghosts provide food for the living."

"We weren't hungry" Ron mumbled another lie; but they were immediately betrayed by his stomach, grumbling under the hungriness. 

"I think that Mister Potter and his friends are not quite truthful" Snape said as he looked more than happy about it, "I suggest we deprive him of certain privileges until he is ready to deliver the complete story. I personally think he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch Team until he tells the truth."

Clarke frowned, clearly understanding that Snape was trying to do anything he could so Harry wouldn't compete in their next Quidditch match against Slytherin with Malfoy as their new seeker. 

"That is nonsense" McGonagall huffed, "Mrs Norris hasn't been hit on the head by a broomstick. There is no evidence that Mister Potter is guilty at all."

Dumbledore said nothing at first; only giving them searching looks; and Clarke had the feeling it was like being X-rayed, as she felt like Dumbledore could see _inside_ her. 

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus" Dumbledore finally stated, suddenly looking like he had aged another hundred years in the last couple minutes. How old was he anyways?

But that wasn't at all what Filch seem to want, as he got up as quick as he could, his face turning red again. "But she has been _petrified_ ! Someone _must_ pay!" 

"We will be able to cure her, Argus" Dumbledore calmly said. 

"Mrs Prout's mandrakes" Hermione then murmured, remembering something they had learned a few weeks ago in Botany Class, "They can turn over a petrificus spell."

"Yes" Dumbledore nodded, a barely visible smile growing on his lips. "As some of them have reached their full sizes, I will have a potion made to revive Mrs Norris."

A couple seconds of silence fell into the office, and then, Dumbledore spoke again. 

"You may go" He gestured to the group, but as they were turning over to leave the room, he talked again. "Not you, Miss Griffin."

Octavia frowned, almost speaking up to protest against Clarke staying behind on her own, but under Clarke's stare advising her not to do it, everyone left, only leaving Dumbledore and Clarke in Lockhart's office. 

"Clarke" Dumbledore started, sitting on the edge of the desk, "I believe that you are all innocent of what just took place."

Clarke nodded, grateful the Headmaster wasn't thinking they had been the ones to petrify the cat. 

"However, you have been taking classes outside of Hogwarts, and learning things students in this school don't learn" Dumbledore stated, his gaze serious. "Or learn later." 

Clarke waited in silence, waiting to see where he was heading. 

"I must advise you to be very careful with your knowledge" Dumbledore talked again. "Some may believe it is you, that's doing unusual magic."

"But you must know I am not _that_ good at magic anyways" Clarke helplessy shrugged, not knowing why she could ever be seen as a threat, "I wouldn't be able to do that."

"You are unaware of your own possibilities, Miss Griffin" Dumbledore only enigmatically said. "But maybe it is better that way."

He got up, and went to the door, ready to leave. At the last minute, he turned around to face her once more. 

"For now, anyways." He murmured. 

The next second, Clarke was alone in Lockhart's office. 

* * *

Back in the Gryffindor Tower, Clarke found all of her friends already sat down around Ron, Octavia, Harry and Hermione as they were telling what happened to both equally clueless Dani, Raven and Gaia, an Ilvermorny student paired with Ravenclaw. 

"Should I have told them about the voices?" Harry asked them after they had told them everything. 

"No" Raven shrugged, "Hearing voices is weird, even in the magic world."

"Yeah, definitely not" Ron agreed. 

Harry then frowned, looking at them. "You do believe me, right?"

"Of course" Ron was quick to answer, "But, you must admit.. That's pretty weird, mate."

"I _know_ it's weird" Harry huffed. 

"The whole thing's weird anyways" Clarke joined the conversation, plopping down on the carpet next to Dani. " _The chamber has been opened_. What does that even _mean_ ?"

"It kind of rings a bell though" Ron hummed, trying to find in his memory where he had heard those words before, "Someone may have talked to me about it... Maybe Bill..."

"Bill is Ron's older brother" Clarke whispered to Dani as the girl had frowned at the new name. 

"And what on Earth is a _Squib_ ?" Harry asked, causing Ron and Raven to snigger. 

"Sorry, it's not very funny" Raven apologized, trying hard not to laugh, "But as it's Filch..."

"A Squib is someone born from wizards parents, in a wizard family, but who can't do magic" Ron chuckled. 

"Like a mudblood, but with magical parents" Clarke deduced. 

"Yes" Dani nodded. "They are quite unusual."

"It would explain a lot about him" Octavia then shrugged. "Why he hates students that much. He's bitter, or something."

"Or maybe he is very sad about it" Gaia, the new girl, spoke for the first time. "More often than not, Squibs are forced to live in the Wizard World because their entire family are wizards, and that makes them very miserable."

No one answered as none of them knew what to say after that - and having trouble picturing Filch cry over his non-magic abilities.

"What Dumbledore wanted with you, C ?" Octavia then questionned her friend, remembering how she had to stay behind. 

"Only to warn me to be careful with my _knowledge_ , as I'm taking classes from Beauxbâtons too." Clarke shrugged. "Good thing I don't have much of that."

"You have more power than you know, Clarke" Dani gently offered her, then got up, waved them goodnight and went to bed as it was already late in the evening. 

Clarke frowned, Dani's words weirdly echoing Dumbledore's only one hour earlier. But as the clock rang midnight, Clarke didn't have time to dwell on it and everybody went to bed, not wanting Snape or anyone to bring them trouble once again. 


	8. The Girls' Bathroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and her friends investigate to find out more and the heir and the Chamber of Secrets. Lexa doesn't look good at all, and won't talk about it. They learn someone's fear, and talk with a ghost who wants to kill herself - again.

** Chapter 8 : The Girls' Bathroom**

For the next week, everyone talked about nothing else than Filch and his petrified cat, everyone set on finding who was _the_ _heir_ and who could have done such a thing. Ginny, Ron's sister, seemed very disturbed by Mrs Norris' fate, who was now looking more pale than ever. 

Lexa, too, had closed herself off from Clarke, always finding an excuse for them to study together; after a while, Clarke had stopped reaching out, not understanding the girl's constant shifts of mood. Hermione had been impacted by the attack, too; it was quite normal for her to have her head stuck in a book, but now she was doing nothing else than read. Going through their classes and homework, the group had little time left to talk about what had happened; and franckly, they were all trying to keep a low profile. 

One week later, as they were working on their History of Magic paper - Clarke hated that class, and Aska was always falling alseep on the floor during lectures -, Hermione, who they hadn't seen much in the past week, came to their table sporting a frown on her face. 

"All the copies of _Hogwarts: A History_ have been taken out" Hermione said, huffing as she sat down next to Dani, "And there's a two-week waiting list. I left my copy at home, I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all of Lockhart's..."

"It's a shame you took all Lockhart's books instead" Ron sniggered, only to be hit seconds later in the ribs by Hermione. 

"Why do you want it?" Clarke asked, trying to remember if she had brought that book to Hogwarts this year or not. 

"The same reason everyone wants it" Hermione said as if it was obvious, "To read about the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's that?" Clarke frowned. 

"That's just it, I can't remember" Hermione bit her lip, a bit ashamed at herself for having read about it the year before and having already forgotten about it. 

Dani told them it was time to go to their next class, History of Magic, and as Ron was trying to get Hermione to let him read her essay, they took their seats into their most annoying class ever, their teacher, Professor Binns, being a ghost who hadn't realized he had died in the first place, only waking up one morning and going to teach his class while leaving his body behind. 

The lesson about the International Warlock Convention of 1289 was as boring as ever, until Hermione Granger did something exactly Hermione-like; raise her hand. 

"Professor, I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets" Hermione asked, as suddenly, every student that had been alseep from the beginning of the lecture was now wide awake. 

Professor Binns blinked, surprised about someone speaking up in his class. 

"I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends" He cleared his throat with a small noise and continued his lecture. "In September of that year, a sub-commitee of..."

But then again was cut off by Hermione's hand up in the air. 

"Miss Granger?"

"Please, Sir" Hermione asked, "Don't legends and myths always have a basis in fact?"

Professor Binns seemed embarrassed to give her reason. "Well, I suppose you could say that..." He looked at Hermione as if no student had ever spoken up before, "but the legend you talk of is such a ludicrus tale..."

But the whole class had now their eyes on him, waiting for him to continue; Clarke could tell he wasn't familiar with having students hanging at his lips, and that he didn't really know what to do about it. 

"Very well" He sighed, giving up, "Let me see, the chamber of secrets... You all know that Hogwarts was founded over thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age : Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle away from prying muggle eyes, for it was an age where magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffering from persecution." He paused, looking around the room, noticing the students were still very focused on his words. 

"For a few years, the founders worked well together, seeking out young people who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But soon enough, disagreement sprang up between them. Slytherin wished to be more... _Selective_ of about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin left the school." Blinns told them. 

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much" He then said, "but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin built an hidden chamber in the castle, in which the other founders knew nothing about. According to the legend, he sealed the chamber so that none other than his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the monster within and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was an heavy silence reigning in the classroom once Professor Binns stopped talking. Where it usually was a sleepy and bored quietness, it was now full of uneasiness. Everyone kept looking at their teacher, hoping for more. 

"The whole thing is nonsense of course" Professor Binns huffed, mildly annoyed at seeing that his students were more interested in this myth that in his actual lectures. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a Chamber many, _many_ times. It does not exist."

Unsurprising, Hermione's hand was back in the air. 

"Sir, what exactly do you mean by _the monster within_ the Chamber of Secrets?"

Professor Binns rolled his eyes - to Clarke's surprise, only just discovering that ghosts could actually roll their eyes when fed up - but he answered Hermione's question anyways. 

"There is believed to be some sort of monster which only the heir can control" Professor Binns only said, now completely fed up with this story. 

At his words, students tried to ask other questions, but in vain; a minute later, they were all back alseep under Professor Binns' boring words. 

* * *

"I always knew Slytherin was a weird dude" Ron stated while stuffing another chicken wing in his mouth, as they now were in the Great Hall having dinner. 

"And who could be the heir, though?" Hermione wondered. 

"He or she must be Slytherin" Raven shrugged, "If they truly are Slytherin's true heir, they must be in Slytherin house, right?"

"Probably" Clarke hummed, lightly scratching behind Aska's ears, then looking at the Slytherin table, trying to find the slightest clue about who it could be. 

Dani entered the Great Hall, followed by Gaia and Sebastian, both Ilvermorny students too, as they were sitting down next to the group, tired after having worked all evening on some Potions essay they needed to write for their american school. 

"So, did you find out who was the heir?" Dani asked them, filling up her plate. 

"Not yet" Ron sighed. "I mean, how are we supposed to find out about it anyways?"

"We heard something" Dani hummed, "When coming here."

"A boy named Colin Creevy" Sebastian, the Ilvermorny student paired with Hufflepuff, told them. "He was whispering about something related to Harry and being the heir."

"This one is like a plague following us" Ron rolled his eyes, fed up with the first-year Gryffindor student who was following Harry like a parasite. 

"Surely talking about me being the heir, I bet" Harry muttered, suddenly not very angry. 

"You can't be" Octavia told him, a sympathetic smile on her face, "Like Raven said, if you _were_ the heir, you would have been sorted in Slytherin."

Harry weakly nodded, although Clarke briefly wondered why he didn't seem to be very reassured by the prospective. She looked at the Slytherin table again, spotting Lexa, looking paler than ever, not touching the plate Anya was pushing in front of her. 

Clarke suddenly remembered something they had talked about, the year before. 

"Raven, do you remember last year, when you talked to us about Lexa's family?" Clarke asked. 

"Yeah" Raven shrugged. 

"Oh, I remember that" Octavia added, "You thought she was of Slytherin's family!"

They got up, their dinner over, ready to go to bed with their stomach full. 

"Why think she is a Slytherin?" Dani frowned, not understanding how Raven could know something about Lexa's family, as herself didn't know much even though she had grown up by Lexa's side for some years. 

"She looks a bit like Salazar" Raven explained to Dani and her friends. "We saw a picture of him; so we had the hypothesis that she was some descendant of him."

"But we found nothing about their family tree" Octavia added. "Like she doesn't even _have_ one."

"That's not true" Dani frowned again, "She _has_ a family. Well, her parents died a while ago, but I met some of her family members."

"So, could it be that she is part of Slytherin's original family tree?" Octavia wondered, waving to Sebastian, Raven and Gaia who were taking a right turn to go to their own dorm, "Clarke, you told us yourself, there's too much mystery surrounding that girl."

"There's a lot mystery around myself, and yet you're not thinking I am the heir" Clarke retorted. 

"Do you really think this chamber really exists, though?" Ron asked the group. 

"Franckly, I don't know" Hermione answered. "I mean, you saw Dumbledore. He couldn't cure Mrs Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her wasn't, well... _Human_."

"You're talking about this monster that's supposed to be in the Chamber" Clarke said. 

"It could still be a myth" Dani murmured, but not very convinced of her own words. 

"If it was, why do all this?" Hermione pushed on, "Why petrify _a cat_ in the first place? Why write those words, which, _by the way_ , can't be erased no matter how many times Filch tries to scrub them out of the wall?"

"I don't know" Clarke shrugged, a bit helpless at finding themselves once again in a weird situation. And Dumbledore himself had said it; it would have involved a great level in Dark Arts to be able to petrify the cat like that; something no students in Hogwarts were supposed to know how to do. 

"And who would want all Muggle-borns and Squibs out of Hogwarts anyways?" Dani wondered as they were walking in the corridors towards their dorm. 

"Let's think" Ron ironically snorted, "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?" He said, looking at Hermione. 

Hermione sighed, unconvinced. "If you're talking about Malfoy..."

"Of course I am!" Ron said, "You've heard him. _You'll be next, mudbloods!"_

Clarke couldn't deny that Draco Malfoy indeed seem the perfect candidate. 

"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" Dani skeptically said. 

"Ron is right, I mean, look at his family" Harry added, "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always gloating about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants."

"His father is evil enough" Octavia agreed. 

"They could have had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries" Ron told them, "Handing it down father to son, on generations!"

"well, I suppose..." Hermione cautiously said, "It could be possible..."

"But how to prove it, though?" Clarke raised an excellent point. 

Then, they noticed the look on Hermione's face. 

"Hermione, what is it?" Harry asked, himself too sensing his friend had an idea about it. 

"There might be a way" Hermione started, "But of course it's dangerous. And like, breaking at least fifty rules."

"Well we don't really care about rules, do we?" Octavia snorted as they, indeed, were in the habit of _breaking_ the rules rather than complying to them. 

"What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy about him without him realising it's us" Hermione stated. 

"That's impossible" Ron huffed, disappointed at seeing that Hermione's plan wasn't really one. 

"No it's not, actually" Dani answered, looking thoughtful. "Polyjuice Potion." She said, turning to Hermione, checking if it was indeed what the girl was thinking about. 

"Exactly" Hermione smiled, happy someone had thought about it too.

"What's that?" Ron and Harry said at the same time. 

It was Clarke that answered. "Snape talked about it a couple of classes ago" Clarke murmured, then turning to Dani, "Why do you know about this?"

"I have Brazilian cousins, masters of potions" Dani only shrugged. If Clarke noticed how Dani had said _I have brazilian cousins_ and not _we_ , she didn't say a word about it, staying focused on the matter at hands. 

"It's a potion that allows you to transform into somebody else" Hermione explained. "We could change into Slytherin students. Malfoy would probably tell us anything."

"That actually sounds like a good idea" Octavia offered.

"But what if we're stuck as Slytherins for the rest of our lives?" Ron asked, still not looking very sure about this plan. 

"It wears off after a while" Hermione rolled her eyes as if fed up by the boy's lack of knowledge - and trust in her. "But getting the receipe will be hard. Snape told us it was in a book called _Most Potente Potions_ , but I think it's in the restricted area."

Clarke sighed, knowing that it meant having to ask a teacher for authorization. And how would they justify wanting to look about Polyjuice potion?

Suddenly, they realised they were standing exactly where the attack had taken place; the cat had been removed, of course, and an empty chair now stood under the big bright letters. 

"That's where Filch is taking watch" Ron muttered, not very looking forward to be found by the man in a wrong place at the wrong time again. 

"It can't hurt to look around a bit" Harry suggested, moving forward and dropping his bag to the floor, trying to look for clues. "There're scorch marks here" He noticed, as Hermione was pointing to something else. 

"Look, this is funny" She told them as they got closer to her, wanting to see what she was talking about, as Aska seemed to be sniffing something. Around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently trying to get outside by a crack in the nearest window, almost as if they were in some kind of a hurry to get out of there. 

"I never saw spiders behave like that" Octavia stated, then snorted at Ron's sudden pale face. 

"What's the matter, Ronald?" Hermione enquired. 

"I... I don't like spiders" He mumbled, staying a good ten feet from the rest of them. 

Clarke gestured for Aska to stay by her feet as he seemed to have set his mind on eating the spiders. Ron, on the other side was sporting a scowl, apparently not taking well the fact that his friends clearly looked like trying to hold back their laughter. 

"It's not funny. Fred turned my teddy bear into a spider when I was three." He grumbled. 

Octavia snorted, picturing a three-year old Ron screaming in panic as his teddy bear was suddenly turned into a hairy beast with eight legs. Sensing that they needed to change to subject quickly, Clarke touched the floor, now completely dry, focusing back on what they were looking for, now that Aska had stopped trying to eat the eight-legged creatures. 

"Remember all the water on the floor?" She asked them, "It's been all moped out. Where could it have come from?"

"Over there" Ron pointed to the next door, "It seemed to come from here." He reached for the doorknob, but at the last second he withdrew his hand, taking a step backwards. 

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked.

"Hum, we can't go in there" Ron mumbled, "It's the girls' bathroom."

"No one will be in there" Hermione rolled her eyes as if her friend had said the stupidest thing ever, pushing the door open, "It's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on." 

"This wailing ghost again...?" Octavia huffed, but following Hermione inside either way. 

This bathroom was probably the creepiest bathroom Clarke had ever set foot in; no wonder no one was coming here. 

Hermione put her fingers to her mouth, silently telling them to keep quiet, and went over the last cubicle, gently pushing the door open. 

"Hi, Myrtle, how are you?" Hermione said, looking around and trying to find the girl - well, the _ghost_ of the girl. Here she was, floating over a toilet seat, looking doubiously at Harry and Ron. 

"This is a girls' bathroom" She said, eyeing the boys, "And they are _not_ girls."

"I just wanted to show them how nice it was, here" Hermione stuttered as Clarke was mentally face-palming herself. 

"Ask her if she saw anything" Harry mouthed to her, but immediately realised it was a mistake as Myrtle started to wail again. 

"I _wish_ people would stop talking behind my back!" She said, "I _do_ have feelings, you know, even if I am dead..."

Clarke winced as Moaning Myrtle let a sob escape her hollowed body, the sound echoing into the room. 

"We wanted to ask you if you'd seen something funny" Hermione quickly asked, not wanting to spend more time than necessary in company of the moaning ghost. 

"A cat has been attacked near your door on Halloween's night" Clarke continued. "Did you see something?"

"No" Myrtle sniffed. "I was too upset by Peeves. I came here, wanting to kill myself, but then I remembered...."

"That you're already dead" Ron muttered under his breath, receiving a quick nudge to the ribs by Octavia in the process; the last thing they needed was for Myrtle to start screaming and alert a teacher. 

"Ok, let's go" Clarke pushed them towards the exit, seeing that the ghost was back to wailing and moaning, now useless to them. 

* * *

The next couple of days had gone smoothly, and no incident had happened again - as they were still trying to figure this mystery out, Hermione working on a way to get her hands on the potions' book with the polyjuice receipe in it. 

Yawning as the night was settling in, Clarke entered the library hoping to find Dani studying with her Ilvermorny friends; instead, her eyes fell on Bellamy, who she smiled to, sitting down next to Anya and some of their friends. At the sight of Clarke, Anya got up, quickly whispering a few words to her companions, and walking over to Clarke. Frowning, the Blonde waited for the older girl, not really knowing what it was that Anya needed to tell her. 

"Clarke" Anya formerly greated her, planting herself in front of the Blonde. 

"Anya" Clarke nodded back. 

"I noticed you have not spend much time with Lexa lately" Anya stated as if her words weren't hiding another idea behind them. 

"Lexa is..." Clarke searched for the proper words, not wanting to offend Anya; the girl was scary enough. "Lexa seemed to have other things on her mind."

Anya hummed, silently proving to Clarke that her assumptions were correct. 

"You should go to her" Anya then said; although it seemed like it was burning her tongue to say the words. "Lexa has been struggling. You are to go to Beauxbatons with her again this year. Maybe you can do something."

And the next minute, Anya was back to her table, ignoring Clarke's presence in the library like she had not just talked to her seconds before. Frowning, Clarke got out of the room, trying really hard to think about what Anya's words could mean. _You should go to her._ How so, go to Lexa? What for? 

It wasn't like Clarke hadn't tried to reach out to the girl; it was that Lexa had distanced herself from the Blonde. Sighing, Clarke took a turn left and headed to the Great Hall, little hope of finding Lexa in there but taking the chance.

Taking a look around, Clarke first spotted only a few students, half-asleep on their essays at this late hour of the evening. 

"Can you find Lexa, boy?" Clarke murmured to Aska as her doy started sniffing the air in search of a certain Brunette. It took only a couple seconds before Aska started wagging his tail, and Clarke knew she had found her. 

"Lead me to her" Clarke chuckled, seeing that Aska wanted to run to the girl, but waiting for Clarke's permission either way. 

Aska quietly barked, starting to jog into the room, going to the very front seats of the Slytherin table, finding Lexa asleep on her hands and gently nudging her with his wet nose. Clarke gestured for Aska to back down a bit so they wouldn't startle Lexa awake, and Aska, almost pouting, sat back on his legs, waiting for Clarke to move again. 

Clarke frowned at the sight of Lexa; the girl looked like she had dropped some weight. Her face, which was usually well-drawn thanks to her jawline, now seemed hollowed and so pale Clarke could have thought the girl was already half-dead. 

"Lexa" Clarke sat down next to her, trying to be very careful so she wouldn't scare Lexa while waking her up. "Lexa, it's me" Clarke said again, this time gently putting her hand on the Brunette's shoulder. 

In a sight, Lexa opened her eyes, looking groggy and stiff from having fallen asleep on a table; like this, she almost looked like another twelve years old, still little and in need of protection. 

"Lexa, what's happening to you...?" Clarke murmured, noticing the dark patches under the girl's eyes. 

"Clarke" Lexa breathed, trying to sit herself straight again, but groaning as her body seemed to fail her. "I am fine."

"Don't tell me you are _fine_ , Lexa" Clarke hissed under her breath, grabbing the nearer pitcher, filling a glass of water and putting it in front of Lexa, not leaving any place to doubt about what the girl needed to do with it. "You are obviously _not_ fine."

Lexa clenched her teeth, drinking the full glass. 

"Why won't you talk to me?" Clarke asked in a sigh, "I could help. Whatever this is."

"You wouldn't understand" Lexa murmured with a defeated look on her face. 

"Try me" Clarke shrugged. 

Lexa didn't say a word; only looking at Clarke, as if trying to determine something. Then, Lexa tried to get up, but her knees buckled under her, and Clarke caught her just in time to avoid the girl to face-plant onto the Great Hall's floor. 

"Come on, you're exhausted" Clarke murmured, "Let's get you to bed."

Clarke put an arm around Lexa's waist, trying to forget about the weird feeling it was creating in her stomach. Aska leading the way, they headed for the Gryffindor Tower; Clarke had figured out that Lexa wouldn't rest if left without surveillance. And the Gryffindor Tower was always hosting other Houses' students anyways. 

Speaking of which, Clarke found Octavia and Raven waiting for her in Gryffindor's common room, worried after having seen Dani come back to the tower, telling them she had not seen Clarke. 

"Clarke?" Octavia got up from the couch, coming to her, "What happened? Dani siad she didn't see you, we were worried". 

"Why's Lexa here?" Raven added, "And why does she look half-dead?"

Dani, a few feet from them, didn't say a word, but didn't look less worried. 

Clarke threw a pointed look to her friend, silently telling her she would explain herself later. With their help, they got Lexa upstairs, putting her in Clarke's bed, awakening Hermione in the process. 

"Clarke?" She frowned, "What's going on? Is Lexa ok?"

"She will be" Clarke huffed under Lexa's weight as the Brunette didn't seem to want to let Clarke take her shoes off. "Go back to sleep."

Dani went usptairs to the dorm reserved for visitors, Raven climbed into Octavia's bed at the other side of the room, while Hermione buried herself back under her covers. Clarke quietly got her clothes off, climbing into her bed next to Lexa, half-asleep. She silently chuckled as Aska, as always, jumped on the bed, putting himself on their feet. 

"What's happening to you, Lexa?" Clarke whispered once again, daring to run her hand on Lexa's face. "What is plaguing your mind?"

In her sleep, Lexa quietly whimpered, then sighed, turning over and her hand going to find Clarke's sleep shirt, her grip tight on it. Clarke, first surprised by the gesture, moved a bit closer to Lexa, trying to find some sleep, lulled by the Brunette's respiration rhythm. 


	9. The Enchanted Bludger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke's necklace glows randomly. But is it really...? The group gets out a book out of the restricted area. Why should toenails be involved? The Griffins are fan of Quidditch and Harry gets hit by a Bludger. As always, rainy days are interesting in Hogwarts. 
> 
> PS: Can you imagine that the 100 (TV show) is over?? I certainly cannot.

** Chapter 9 : The Enchanted Bludger **

Clarke awoke with a start, feeling the presence of someone else - else than Aska, always laying on her feet - in her bed. Then, slowly realising that it was Lexa, Clarke got comfortable under the covers again. The Blonde was starting to get worried about Lexa; because even if it was usual for Lexa to be cold and distant, Clarke had never seen her look so weak and hollow. Like something was weighting her down, almost as if she was battling against something. 

Clarke chuckled as Aska, sensing that she was awake, chuffled on her feet and got closer to the Blonde, gently licking her fingers. 

"Hi Aska" Clarke whispered in the dark of the bedroom as the sun wasn't up yet and it was too early to get up, lightly petting her dog between his ears. Then, Clarke felt Lexa stir by her side, and pushed Aska a bit so she could turn over on her side to face her friend. 

"Hey" Clarke whispered when Lexa opened her eyes. 

Lexa didn't answer, but kept looking at Clarke with an unreadable expression in her eyes. 

"Are you ok?" Clarke asked. 

"I don't know" Lexa finally confessed after a few seconds. 

"It will be Christmas soon" Clarke murmured. "Are we going to Beauxbâtons again?"

Lexa's lips pulled up just a little bit - which could have gone unnoticed if Clarke hadn't learned to read Lexa's face so well -, somehow meaning that she was glad Clarke was still considering coming to France for Christmas again this year. 

"Would you?" Lexa whispered anyways. 

"What?" Clarke frowned, not understanding what Lexa meant. 

"Come to Beauxbâtons with me." Lexa explained in a whisper. 

"Of course" Clarke shrugged, "My cousins are there."

"Yes, your cousins" Lexa exhaled - and if Clarke didn't know any better, she could have missed the disappointed shadow quickly passing on Lexa's face to disappear the second after. 

"You know that is not only the reason why I go there, Lexa" Clarke gently chuckled. 

Lexa said nothing, only nodding. 

"We should get up" Lexa then murmured after a while. 

"Nope" Clarke said, only shuffling further under the covers, "We should stay in bed. No one's up yet."

"I am not a Gryffindor, Clarke" Lexa quietly protested, "I am not supposed to be there at all. Someone will see me."

"Raven isn't Gryffindor and yet she's here all the time" Clarke shrugged again, "No one will bat an eye."

"They don't have the same tolerance for Raven than they do me" Lexa pushed on. 

"They just don't know you, Lexa" Clarke gently said. "But that could change, you know...?"

Lexa didn't answer, only closing back her eyes and staying still. Then, Clarke saw her friend open her eyes again, frowning. 

"What is it?" Clarke asked. 

"Your necklace" Lexa pointed to Clarke's chest. 

Frowning in turn, Clarke lowered her eyes to where her ruby necklace was resting under her sleep-shirt. A pale red glow was emaning from under the fabric, lightly tingling Clarke's skin. 

"What the hell" Clarke murmured, taking the stone out of her shirt and turning it in her fingers, "Why is it glowing?"

Lexa helplessy shrugged, because she didn't know how Clarke's necklace could glow, either. They only knew one way; being close to another Griffin necklace, and as far as they knew, there only was one other; Diana's. 

"Do you think Diana's here?" Clarke whispered, sitting down in her bed, eyes still fixated on her necklace. 

"I don't know" Lexa said, "Did she tell you she would come?"

Clarke shook her head no. 

Then, faint lights started to glow in the room, meaning it as time for the students to wake up. And at the second the lights turned on, Clarke's necklace stopped glowing. 

"Guys, is everything ok?" Hermione asked noticing their confused face, as she was yawning and getting out of bed, starting to get dressed. Octavia and Raven got close to Clarke's bed, them too, noticing that the girls weren't beginning to get ready for the day. 

"My necklace" Clarke murmured, showing them - even if it wasn't glowing anymore - "Just glowed seconds earlier."

"Impossible" Octavia frowned, "It only glows in presence of other Griffins' necklaces. Isn't what your cousin told you?"

"Yeah, but Lexa was there too, it did glow" Clarke frowned again, already getting a headache about it.

"Weird" Octavia hummed. "But come on, we gotta hurry, we'll be late." 

* * *

Although Clarke had her thoughts focused on something else, the day did turn out to be a successful one. No pixies nor magical creatures in Lockhart's class today - which was a relief - and Hermione even managed to have Lockhart sign a permission to get the _Most Potente Potions_ book out of the library's restricted area. The man hadn't even looked at what book Hermione was asking for, too busy ranting about his numerous successes and giving Harry advices for the upcoming Quidditch match. 

"I swear this man is giving me a headache" Ron groaned once they were out of the classroom, "He didn't even look at what we wanted. He truly got no brain". 

"He does have..." Hermione started, only to be cut off by Ron. 

"Just because he said you were the most brilliant student of the year does not mean he is a clever man" Ron huffed. 

The next step of their plan proved to be a little more complicated; Madam Pince, the librarian, was quite suspicious as to why second-year students would want to read such a book. She held up the permission note up to the light, as if she wanted to find any evidence of some kind of trick, but found none; and reluctlantly gave them the potions book. 

They all hurried to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, knowing they wouldn't be disturbed there - no one was coming to this bathroom, as no one wanted to hear Moaning Myrtle well, moan - as Hermione started to search for the receipe of this Polyjuice potion her and Dani had talked about a few days ago. 

"I know why this book belongs to the restricted area" Octavia chuckled as they were browsing through the old and tired pages. Indeed, most potions were provoking quite unpleasant effects on people drinking them, the illustrations coming with the receipes very graphical about what their purposes were. 

Just as Hermione had found the page about the polyjuice potion, Raven entered the bathroom with Gaia and Lexa in toes. 

"Look who I've found" Raven gestured to Lexa, "I invited her. We could use her carefulness into this whole madness of a plan."

Although Ron didn't look too happy about having a Serpentar student knowing about their plan, Clarke was feeling a bit relieved at not having to hide what they were doing from Lexa. There had been enough secrets between them, and she didn't want any barriers separating them. 

"Hey" Clarke murmured to Lexa once the girl had settled down on the cold bathroom floor next to the Blonde. 

"Hi" Lexa shyly smiled back; she looked way better than when Clarke had found her the evening before. 

"I'm sorry for whatever Raven may have said to you when she persuaded you to join us" Clarke apologized with a smile on her lips, although she knew that if Lexa was there, she wasn't too traumatized by her friend. 

"It's ok" Lexa told her. "Thank you, by the way" Lexa added in a whisper. 

"What for?"

"Yesterday night" Lexa exhaled - almost as if it was painful to recognise sleeping next to Clarke like they did in Beauxbâtons had helped her. 

Clarke only smiled back, knowing that Lexa was probably uncomfortable enough as it was and dropped the matter, focusing once more on what Hermione was trying to explain to them. 

"This is the most complicated potion I have ever seen" Hermione excitedly told them - although why she was excited, Clarke couldn't guess -. 

"Lacewing flies, leeches..." Dani read over her shoulder, "That should be easy enough to get, right? Those are in your student store-cupboard". 

"Yes" Hermione absentedly nodded, "But powdered horn of a Bicorn, shredded skin of a Boomslang... Don't know where we're going to get that" She told them, scrolling through the receipe. 

"What the hell" Raven muttered as Hermione was telling them about ingredients they didn't even know they existed on this planet. 

"And of course we need a bit of whoever we're changing into" Hermione told them as if it was obvious. 

"What do you mean, a bit of whoever we're changing into?!" Ron shrieked, "I'm drinking _nothing_ with Crabbe's toenails in it!"

"We'll worry about it later" Hermione shrugged, "We add them at last."

Ron paled as Raven rolled her eyes, once again finding that she didn't like where all of this was headed. 

"But where are we even going to find all of this?" Harry helplessly wondered while Clarke couldn't help but agree, "I mean, _shredded skin of a Boomslang_ ? That's definitely _not_ into the student cupboard. are we going to break into Snape's private stores?"

"Well, we could" Raven shrugged, a hint of mischief in her brown eyes. 

"I don't think we _should"_ Lexa quietly said. She knew well how Clarke and her friends were not Snape's favorite students, and they shouldn't take any risks of him discovering what they were up to. 

Hermione closed the book in a bang, a scold on her face. " _I_ don't want to break rules, you know" She said, "But if you don't want to find out if Malfoy did it, then I'll go back to Madam Pince and hand the book straight over...!"

"I never thought we'd seen the day where _you_ would persuade _us_ to break the rules" Ron rolled his eyes, not believing this was real. 

"Hermione does have a point though" Dani quietly said, "I do think threatening Muggles is worse than brewing a difficult potion..."

"You won't be the one expelled from Hogwarts if anyone learns about it" Octavia retorted. 

"O" Clarke warned her friend, not liking how she was speaking to her cousin. 

"I think you should do it" Lexa surprisingly said, speaking up at loud for what must have been the first time ever while hanging with the group. "This is all too weird to let it go; after last year's events..." Lexa trailed off. 

"We need to know" Clarke nodded, silently telling Hermione she would follow her through her plan. 

"How long will it take for us to make this anyways?" Gaia then asked, a bit familiar with those kind of potions - being a little bit older than the rest of them - and knowing it could take up to months. 

"In about a month" Hermione thoughtfully told them. "If we can find all the ingredients at the right time."

"A month?" Raven gasped, "Malfoy could easily harm all of the Muggle-borns of the school by then!"

Raven's hands shot up under Hermione's threatening glare, but Harry was quick to say the right words. 

"It's the best plan we got, so let's do it" The boy hurried to tell his friend. 

All of them nodded to give their accord, and it was settled. 

* * *

The weekend was here again, and with it, Gryffindor's Quidditch match against the Slytherins, their big rival. Harry and Ron had been in a bad mood the last couple of days, the first one because he suddenly doubted his chances against the adverse team all equiped with bran new brooms, and the second fearful of seeing Draco Malfoy strutting all around the school with his victory. 

Clarke herself hadn't been really in a good mood; from time to time, her necklace would glow without Diana being around. She had written to her cousin of course asking her about it, but all Diana had to say about it was that she hadn't left Beauxbâtons since the beginning of her last school year back in September. Even though Clarke knew Diana had absolutely no reasons to be in Hogwarts, Clarke still found herself a bit disappointed that her oldest cousin wasn't really there. At first doubting Lexa's sincerity about not knowing anything about it, Clarke quickly got confirmation that the girl was telling the truth as Lexa was actively searching explanations about it with Clarke. 

Speaking about Lexa, she looked a bit better although her pale skin wasn't back to its original color and there still was a certain tiredness under her eyes. She had yet to speak a word about what had happened to her; but afraid she would close Clarke out again, the Blonde hadn't pushed the subject and was waiting for Lexa to come to her. 

Clarke and her friends were all in the Great Hall - without Harry, who had woken up early for a last Quidditch training before today's game - eating breakfast. 

"Look, there come the twins" Raven shoved Clarke's arm, gesturing towards the big doors where Dani and Elena seemed to be in a deep and stormy conversation. 

"What are they talking about?" Octavia frowned, herself too having noticed that they seemed to be discussing an important and controversial subject. 

Clarke watched in silence as her cousins were finishing their talk, both of them determinely walking towards the tables. Finally, Clarke watched as Dani threw her hands to the sky, then parted ways with her sister, walking towards them. 

Dani sat down next to her cousin with a big sigh, suddenly exhausted even though the weekend had just started. 

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked her, "Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine" Dani chuckled, almost as if she was used to have those kind of talks with her sister. 

Clarke silently pushed a plate towards her cousin, which she refused, not very hungry. 

"I'm going to head to the pitch" Clarke told her friends, "Aska will use being outside for a bit."

As on cue, Aska barked and jumped on his feet as Clarke was getting up. 

"I'll go with you" Dani offered, refusing once again the piece of bread Hermione was offering her to take. 

A couple minutes later, both of them - plus Aska, happily jogging by Clarke's side - were out into the fresh air. 

"Are you okay?" Clarke asked her cousin, once there were only the two of them, away from all their curious friends. 

"Yeah, yeah" Dani sighed. "Elena is just... Intense, sometimes."

"Intense" Clarke chuckled. "You could say that."

It was not that Clarke disliked her cousin; it was more that Elena had given her no reasons to actually enjoy the fact of discovering yet another member of her family. She was glad about Dani, of course; the girl was as old as herself, so she was more a friend than a relative, but Elena... Elena was unreachable, and Clarke wasn't in too much of a hurry to get to know her better. 

"She cares, you know" Dani hummed, although she could understand why Clarke had her doubts about her sister, "But she thinks that love is weakness. That getting close to you will bring nothing but more trouble."

"Love is weakness" Clarke murmured, thinking hard about why those words sounded familiar, "I've heard that before..."

"It's a phrase some people in our family say, sometimes" Dani told Clarke, thinking that the girl must have heard it somewhere, "Some actually believe there is a reason why we don't know the extend of our own family."

"The extend?" Clarke frowned, "So there's more of us?"

"Of course" Dani confirmed, "There are other Griffins out there, who are part of the same branches as we are, but who were kept apart from each other."

"But why?" Clarke frowned, "Where is there all this mystery about this family?"

"I don't know" Dani sighed as Clarke was sure she was truthful, "They always told me I would understand when I would be older. That is was better for me to not know."

"Who told you that?" Clarke wondered. The Quidditch pitch was in sight, and Clarke gently whistled for Aska to come back to her before anyone could get closer to him, wanting to pet him or anything. 

"My parents" Dani answered - although there was a hollowed look in her eyes that made Clarke wonder what else Dani wasn't saying about her parents - or any relatives. 

They got into the stands, sitting down in Gryffindors seats, absently watching the two teams train for the last minutes before the game. 

"Don't you play Quidditch, Clarke?" Dani then suddenly asked, remembering Lexa had told them about the Vinys training Clarke when they had first arrived in Hogwarts. 

"Nope" Clarke denied. "Nathalia trained me though" the Blonde explained. "Gryffindor already had great players and I actually like _flying_ more than I like _playing_ Quidditch, so I thought it wouldn't be fair to take the place of someone who really wanted to play Quidditch."

"That's nice of you" Dani hummed. 

"I'll play when I'll visit my cousins in Beauxbâtons" Clarke shrugged, then noticing what she had said, "I mean, _our_ cousins." She corrected herself. 

"It's ok" Dani chuckled, "I'm having trouble following, too."

"Do _you_ play?" Clarke then enquired after a while of seeing students fly around. 

"Yup" Dani proudly confirmed. "Keeper for the Thunderbirds. Elena is her house's keeper too. Horned Serpents" Dani added, "We've been cast this year when we didn't know we would get to come to Hogwarts, so our seats will be waiting for us when we'll get back."

"I guess Quidditch really does run in the family" Clarke hummed, watching as Harry had just made a full 180 degrees circle with his broom, avoiding a bludger. 

"Yeah" Dani smiled. "Our father put the both of us on a broom at a very young age. Let me tell you it wasn't pretty" Dani chuckled. 

"I bet" Clarke snorted, trying to picture a Dani-toddler trying to stay upright on a broom way too big for her little body. 

* * *

Half an hour later, their friends were making their way into the stands, followed by most of Hogwarts students. There was a certain kind of tension on the pitch; Gryffindors and Slytherins really didn't like each other, and their rivalty was well known. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were cheering for Gryffindor too, anxious to see Slytherin beaten; no one liked the fact that Malfoy had bought his way into the team, when it strickly should have been about talent and skills. 

To Clarke's surprise, Lexa was walking towards her, a shy smile on her lips, and sat down by Clarke's side without saying a word. Clarke offered her a gentle smile, glad that her friend was joining her. Clarke then spotted Anya, Elena and a young girl Clarke remembered to be Lexa's cousin - although they had never talked about it. 

"That's your cousin, right?" Clarke looked towards the young girl, asking Lexa for confirmation. 

"Yes. Her name is Tris" Lexa confirmed with a firm nod. "Although she is more of a sister to Anya than she is a cousin."

"Why?" 

"They grew up together" Lexa explained in a few words. "Tris' parents died when she was a baby still. Anya's parents took ker in."

Clarke hummed, happy that Lexa was opening a bit more about herself and her family; it wasn't that Clarke thought she was hiding things, but more like she had a feeling Lexa knew a lot about Clarke's own family while Clarke knew nothing about Lexa's. 

Then Madam Hooch the flying and Quidditch Teacher blew her whistle, signaling the beginning of the game. 

"What the hell!" Ron exclaimed as a Bludger had just missed Harry's face by an inch, only saved by Georges' intervention. 

"That was a close one" Hermione hummed, following with her eyes Harry flying in the sky. 

But as soon as George had given a powerful hit into the Bludger to redirect it towards a Slytherin, the ball turned around almost immediately and headed straight for Harry's head again. Once again, George saved the boy by hitting the ball full force the other way. 

"That's weird" Dani noted, frowning. "Bludgers never go for one person like this, their job is to unseat as many people as possible..."

"What do you mean?" Hermione anxiously asked, sharing a worried look with Clarke, both thinking about last year where Harry had also been in trouble while playing Quidditch and not wanting a remake of someone/something threatening Harry on his broom. 

"It's almost as if it is magnetically attracted to Harry..." Lexa thoughtfully said, then throwing a curious look to Dani; which Clarke didn't miss. 

"What?" Clarke asked Lexa and Dani, "What is it?"

"That's not me Lexa, I swear" Dani lowly said, raising her hands up and ignoring Clarke's half-curious half-suspicious look. 

"Your sister, then...?" Lexa pushed on, fully focused on Dani who was beginning to look uncomfortable. 

"It doesn't work like this" Dani murmured, "And you know it."

"What are you talking about?" Octavia frowned in turn, herself too having noticed Lexa's sudden odd behaviour towards Clarke's cousin. 

Dani opened her mouth and closed it a few times, looking at Lexa with eyes like a dear being caught in a car's lights, almost as if she was pleading Lexa not to force her to talk about whatever they seemed to share between only the two of them. Clarke knew that look all too much; it was Diana's every time she didn't want to tell Clarke something she was hiding; it was her mother's every time they talked about something magic-related; it was Lexa's every time it involved Clarke's family. 

But Dani didn't have time to say another word as Hermione was screaming into the stands. "Watch out!"

The bludger had just hit Harry in the arm, surely breaking it.

"Oh my god, Harry!" Ron shouted in turn, horrified as his best friend's arm was now hanging down his side, weird-shaped. 

"What the hell is he doing?!" Octavia exclaimed, pointing to Harry who was now flying straight towards Draco Malfoy as if he was set on attacking the boy. 

"He's seen the Snitch" Dani hummed, amused of Draco who was laughing at Harry - stupid Draco who hadn't noticed the Snitch flying just above his own head. Harry had seen it, of course; that's why he was one of the best Seeker Hogwarts had have in a long time. Taking his not-injured hand off his broom, Harry lunged forwards; and headed straight for the ground, rolling in the mud on over ten meters. 

There was a wild gasp from the crowd as Harry hit the ground; his teammates rushed to his side, seeing that Harry had indeed caught the Snitch; but the boy had already fainted. 

* * *

Clarke and her friends quickly got down the stands, crossing the pitch and reaching Harry who was still laying on the ground; his arm was in a pretty bad shape, surely broken in two or three places, Clarke was guessing. 

Harry had gritted teeth because of the pain, but who he saw leaning over him made him grit his teeth even more. 

"Not to worry Harry" Lockhart smiled down on him, "I'm here to fix your arm."

"Maybe he should go straight to the hospital wing" Clarke quickly suggested, not trusting this clown of a professor to fix Harry's arm. 

"Nonsense" Lockhart said lowly to all the anxious Gryffindors pressing around them and rolling up his sleeves. "It'll only take a second."

"I swear to God if..." Octavia started, but only to be cut off by Hermione. 

"He's the Dark Arts teacher" their friend defended Lockhart, "He surely knows what he's doing."

Clarke was really starting to doubt it; but she wouldn't risk disagree with Hermione right now. 

Lockhart then twisted his wand in the air in a weird move, suddenly aiming it at Harry's arm. 

What happened after, Clarke thought she was going to throw up. 

"What the hell!" Raven exclaimed, "What is this spell ?!"

Harry's arm had turned in some kind of rubber arm which didn't seem like having any bones in it anymore. Harry paled at the sight of his now supposed-to-be fixed arm. 

"Ah" Lockhart shrugged after bending the boy's arm in all the directions a couple of times, "That can happen sometimes. At least, it's not broken anymore. Just help him to the infirmary, would you, Miss Granger, Mr Weasley?"

"Can you move your fingers?" Clarke murmured to Harry, taking his hand in hers, quickly checking it over. 

"I don't think I have bones in them anymore" Harry whispered back, a bit panicked by this fact. 

"Go to Madam Pomfrey" Clarke said, nodding to Hermione and Ron, "She'll know what to do."

The three of them were soon out of sight as the rest of the students were starting to walk back towards the castle, the sky threatening with heavy clouds again. 

"What was all this?" Octavia frowned as she was watching Fred and George Weasley wrestling the rogue Bludger into its box. 

"I have no idea" Dani seemed concerned too. "I have never seen a Bludger act like that."

"Last year, Harry's broom had been cast a spell on, right?" Lexa then murmured. 

"Do you think someone cast a spell on the Bludger for it to go straight to Harry every time?" Clarke asked her. 

"I don't know" Lexa answered, "But the Quidditch balls are always locked up in a secure place. Having access to them is not easy."

"Are you suggesting someone of one of the teams did it?" Octavia inquired. 

"I wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy had done it" Raven said. "And I'm sorry, but Lockhart?" the girl rolled her eyes, "This man is dangerous. No way I'm tolerating his presence here until the end of the school year."

"And what will you do about it?" Clarke chuckled, whistling for Aska who had been barking at the stands for a couple of minutes - even if there seemed to be no reasons why-. 

"I don't know yet" Raven shrugged. "Get him lost into the Forbidden Forest. Push him down the lake. Plenty of options here."

The rest of them laughed about Raven's ideas all the way back to the castle. 

* * *

Clarke was sat down with Octavia and Raven at the Gryffindors table into the Great Hall, toying with her food and not really hungry. They had yet to hear from Harry, whom had gone to the library with Ron and Hermione a couple of hours earlier. 

But Clarke had other things on her mind; Lexa's and Dani's conversation in the stands, for example. _That is not_ _me_ , Dani had said. _Your sister, then?_ Lexa had answered. _Magnetically attracted to Harry. Magnetically attracted..._

And the memory flashed up in Clarke's mind. Dani making Malfoy's belt fall down, a couple of months ago. Extra-corporal magic. 

Clarke suddenly got up, surprising Octavia and Raven. 

"Clarke?" Octavia looked at her friend worried, "Is everything ok?"

"I must go find Dani!" Clarke shouted at them while running out of the Great Hall. Her cousin had told her she had to go study in the library with her sister for their Ilvermorny classes, so Clarke headed there first. 

Dani was indeed in the library, bent over a book that didn't look like one of Hogwarts'. She looked up at the sight of Clarke, but quickly frowned, noticing the not-happy look on her cousin's face. 

"Clarke?" Dani frowned. 

"Get up" Clarke ordered her, and then walked out of the library, making Dani understand she had to follow her. 

Dani exchanged a look with Elena, who only looked not-very pleased at the tone Clarke had used with her sister. Sighing, Dani got up and followed Clarke outside of the library. 

"Clarke? Is everything ok?" Dani asked, a bit worried at her cousin's sudden behavior and curious about what had caused it. 

"You tell me" Clarke huffed, "Since when do you know how to do extra-corporal magic?"

Dani gasped, surprised about Clarke's question but not quick enough to hide it. 

"And don't even _try_ to lie to me" Clarke intimated to her cousin. 

Dani sighed, running a hand through her hair, knowing there was no denying it. 

"I've known for a couple years now" Dani confessed. "Elena, too."

"I figured" Clarke scoffed, "It works thanks to the bond between siblings."

"How do you know that?" It was Dani's turn to be confused. 

"I've met the Vinys" Clarke gave her a pointed look. "I've seen what they can do."

Dani nodded, telling herself she should have guessed Clarke would know about the Vinys' abilities. 

"Look, Clarke, I'm sorry for not telling you, alright?" Dani said, not wanting to fight with her cousin about something as stupid as this, "But we didn't know how much you knew."

"You're a Griffin, I should have known you would have it in you, too" Clarke only answered. 

Dani opened her mouth to speak again, but was cut off by her sister, as Elena had just got out of the library and protectively put herself next to Dani. 

"Is everything alright, Danielle?" Elena inquired, her eyes narrowed at Clarke as if she was suspicious about Clarke giving a hard time to her twin. 

"I'm fine" Dani huffed, "And don't call me Danielle."

"That's your name" Elena only said, her eyes not leaving Clarke. 

That's when Clarke felt a familiar tingling on her skin. Her necklace. Clarke frowned, getting her necklace out of under her shirt... And then widened her eyes, quickly sliding her hand on Elena's neck and retrieving the chain she had felt at the top of her fingertips, getting out a necklace, same as Clarke's, only glowing of a different light. 

"What do you think you're doing?" Elena quickly hissed, grabbing Clarke's wrist at the second the girl had touched her skin. 

"You have one too" Clarke stood her ground in front of her growling cousin, "You have a Griffin necklace."

And it was making sense, because Clarke had had that feeling for a while now, that hers and Diana's weren't the only two Griffin necklaces in the world and that other people in their family must have had others too. Elena was the first born girl of her family, being born a couple minutes before Dani, her twin sister. That is why Clarke's necklace was glowing sometimes these days. Because Elena was in Hogwarts. 

Elena batted Clarke's hand with her own, making the Blonde drop the yellow glowing necklace back on Elena's green wool sweater. 

"Those are nothing more than family pieces of junk" Elena said, her eyes hard on Clarke. "Just because they glow in presence of others doesn't mean anything."

"Diana said..." Clarke started, but didn't have time to finish her sentence. 

"Diana says a lot of things" Elena snorted, "But it doesn't mean everything she says is actually true."

And a second later, Elena was back into the library, leaving Dani and Clarke alone in the corridor. 

"Elena's necklace is an amber stone" Dani gently told her cousin, having the feeling to walk on eggshells as she didn't know how Clarke would act after all these discoveries - that they had, once again, hidden from her. 

"That makes three necklaces" Clarke counted. "How many more?"

"I don't know" Dani said, and under Clarke's debious look, raised her hands, "I swear Clarke, I don't know. I didn't even know you had one, I've never seen it; that's why I didn't talk to you about it. I knew about Diana's, but she never said anything about you having inheritated of one."

"My mother gave it to me last year" Clarke explained, finding herself exhausted. "She must have gotten it through my father, but obviously it never worked with him."

Seeing that Clarke was toying with her necklace, Dani quickly told her cousin to wait for her as she was going back into the library to retrieve her things so they could go talk somewhere more comfortable than in the middle of a cold and dark corridor. While they were walking towards the Gryffindor tower, Dani thought that it was a good enough time to talk about this a bit more. 

"Elena doesn't believe in the necklaces' legend" Dani sighed. "She's reticent about anything related to this family, actually."

"Why?" Clarke frowned. "You told me she knows how to do extra-corporal magic. It's a family thing, right?"

"Yes" Dani confirmed, "Or at least we think so because we can't prove otherwise yet. But just because we haven't met someone else than a Griffin do it doesn't mean that someone out there isn't doing extra-corporal magic without being a Griffin by blood."

"And the necklaces?" Clarke inquired. "You talked about a legend."

"There is rumored to be a bit more than a couple of stones. Exactly how many, I don't know" Dani told her cousin, "But more than three, I'm almost sure about it. Each stone has a significance" The girl explained while pushing the Gryffindor's tower entrance door open and holding it so her cousin could go in. "I think their power is based on the original Griffin member it was created for."

"What kind of power is it?" Clarke asked. 

"I don't know" Dani shrugged. "My father believes it serves as some kind of bridge, between Griffins. To strenghen the magic linking them."

"Like magic boosters or something?" 

"Yeah, you could say that" Dani hummed, thinking that it was as good of an image as any. The girls plopped down on one of the couches. "But Elena doesn't believe in all this. She thinks it's only some kind of Muggles-hijacked objects some wizards did to pass the time and build mystery around them so no one would come looking for trouble" Dani explained. "As for extra-corporal magic, she thinks it's just a coincidence the Vinys are able to do it, too. She only wears it because it belonged to our aunt, Claire, my father's sister, who died fighting against You-Know-Who a decade ago."

"It's a bit big for a coincidence" Clarke hummed, choosing not to comment on Dani and Elena's dead aunt. Clarke could have believed it, a year earlier; but she had come to learn that _nothing_ in the wizard world was a coincidence. 

"That's what _I_ think" Dani sighed. "But Elena has always known more about all this than I do. It's like she's shielding herself from being too close to people, so she can stay focused at all times."

"She sounds like Lexa" Clarke humorlessly chuckled. 

"Lexa is different though" Dani said. "Elena is like that because she wants to protect _me_ at all costs. I know she tries to hide it, but she's not very good at it."

Clarke snorted because she was finding that Elena was, _on the contrary_ , really good at hiding all emotions. 

"Lexa is on her own" Dani told her cousin. "She carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she does it alone. Even with all the secrets and stuff, at least you have been protected from that."

"I'm not sure I'm happy with discovering bits here, bits there, like that either" Clarke voiced her thoughts. 

"Maybe, but you are very well-surrounded" Dani shrugged. "It's always better than being on your own."

And with that, Clarke couldn't disagree. Clarke was everything but alone. 


	10. The Waterproof Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain house elf is meddling with things again. Another student gets petrified. They start the polyjuice potion and create a big mess in potions Class.

** Chapter 10 : The Waterproof Fire**

Clarke and her friends got up early for a Sunday morning, being woken up by Hermione who had a worried look on her face. Colin Creevy, the boy who was always following Harry around with his camera, had been found petrified the night before, exactly like Mr Filch's cat a couple of months ago. 

At first wanting to go see if Harry was healed, they had then decided to go start the polyjuice potion instead, wanting to be able to get answers out of Draco as soon as they could. Raven and Gaia went in search of the ingredients they could easily find in the students' cupboard, as Gaia was a more advanced student that they were and would have no trouble getting everything they needed. 

Clarke and Dani headed to the potions' classroom in hope of finding an old and abandonned cauldron they could use for the polyjuice; and were happy to find one - which they quickly grabbed and ran all the way to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to try to avoid any suspicions. 

Lexa wasn't with them, but had promised Clarke to come see them once she had done what she needed to do first. What is what that she absolutely needed to do on a Sunday morning, Clarke didn't know and didn't ask about it. 

Everyone met back in the girls' bathroom, Raven telling them how they had narrowly avoided Bellamy, Anya and Elena on their way over, hiding themselves between under bookshelves as the three Slytherin students were passing by in the corridor. 

"What were they doing already up anyways?" Clarke asked, "Bellamy likes his sleep."

"True" Octavia chuckled, "My brother wouldn't have woken up before ten if he had a say in it."

"Maybe they're up to something" Dani hummed, putting the old cauldron they had retrieved on one of the toilets' seats.

"They _always_ look like they're up to something" Raven noted. 

"So do _we_ , Raven" Clarke chuckled. It was the complete truth; Clarke and her friends were always doing things that wouldn't be following the rules, and anyone who looked at them for a bit more than five minutes could tell they were scheming something. Clarke then whistled, calling for Aska - who seemed to want to put his nose in the cauldron. 

"Anyways, we found what you told us" Gaia said to Hermione, giving her the little bag of ingredients they had taken from the students' closet. 

Thanking the girl, Hermione waved her wand, making a portable fire appear, which she put down the toilet. Yes, down the toilet. 

"Did she just make a waterproof fire...?" Raven narrowed her eyes at their clever friend. 

"Yup" Clarke hummed, impressed by her friend's abilities. Although she shouldn't be surprised really, because Hermione _was_ the most brilliant student Hogwarts had seen in a long while. But still, a fire that burnt in a full toilet? Impressive. 

Suddenly, the bathroom's door opened, and they all jumped up, fearing the worst. 

"It's me" Harry raised his hands in front of them, sheepishly looking at them, sorry to have scared them. 

"God Harry" Hermione sighed in relief, "I thought it was a professor."

"Quick, come in" Octavia gestured him forwards so she could close the door behind them and keep them safe from prying eyes again. 

"How's your arm?" Clarke wondered, seeing that Harry didn't seem to have trouble moving it anymore. 

"Fine" Harry answered. 

"We decided it was best to start the polyjuice now" Ron told his friend. "We thought it was the safest place to hide it."

Harry nodded, agreeing with them; because who would think to come look in this creepy bathroom for a polyjuice potion?

"Colin is..." Harry started, but was cut off by Hermione. 

"We know about Colin" She told him, "I heard Professor McGonagall tell Professor Flitwick this morning. I told the others."

"That's not all" Harry somberly said, as he was sitting down on the cold floor to tell them what had happened that night in the infirmary. "You remember the house elf that visited me this summer, telling me I was in danger and wanting to keep me from coming back to Hogwarts?"

"The one that blocked all our letters to you?" Clarke asked for confirmation. 

"Yes" Harry nodded. "It's him that blocked the barrier to the 3/4 platform" He looked at Ron. "It's also him that enchanted the Bludger to come at me". 

"Does he want to kill you now?" Raven asked, shocked by what she was hearing. 

"I don't think so" Harry denied, "He told me he wanted me to be badly injured so I would go back home."

"But why go into all that trouble?" Dani frowned, "Did you not tell us house elves were enslaved to their wizard masters, and had the habit of punishing themselves when they were disobedient?" She asked Hermione. "An house elf wouldn't have acted on his own choice."

"Yes" Hermione confirmed, "That is why Dobby's behaviour is so odd."

"He did have bandages all over his hands" Harry told them, "He said he ironed his own hands after keeping the barrier to let us through."

"What on Earth..." Raven trailed off, feeling sick by the knowledge of creatures able to self-inflict pain because of their enslaved state. 

"He said his life - and his kind's - had improved since I've won over you-know-who" Harry frowned, not finding that anything the elf had told him was making sense. "Like a new start for hope."

"So why try to keep you from Hogwarts then?" Gaia asked again, not understanding the links between everything. 

"Bad things are about to happen in Hogwarts, that's what he told me" Harry answered. "He was worried about me now that the Chamber of secrets had been opened again."

" _Again_?" Clarke quickly picked up, "The chamber has been opened again? So it's true then, it already has been opened once in the past?"

"Dobby said History was about to repeat itself" Harry somberly nodded. "I think the rumors and tales and legends about the Chamber of Secrets are indeed true."

"Did he tell you who opened it?" Ron asked, curious. 

"He didn't have time" Harry sighed, "They brought Colin in after, and Dobby was gone in a snap of his fingers."

"This settled everything we think" Ron said with a certain satisfied smile on his face, "Lucius Malfoy opened the Chamber in the past. And now, Draco's the one doing it. It all makes sense". 

"It doesn't, actually" Dani frowned, but didn't have time to talk more about it. 

"Too bad that Dobby couldn't tell you what monster was in there, though" Raven thoughtfully said. "Although I wonder how no one has ever seen it wander around at school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible" Clarke suggested. 

"Or pretend it's an object or something" Gaia shrugged. 

"You know what, Harry?" Ron then told his friend while looking at Harry's new boned arm, "If Dobby doesn't stop from trying to save your life, he's going to kill you."

The others nodded, completely agreeing with that. 

* * *

By Monday morning, the news that Colin Creevy had been attacked had spread through the whole school. Everyone kept walking in the corridors in groups, all huddled together as if there was protection and strength in numbers. 

Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, was paler than ever, and even Ron who hadn't been worried about his sister's condition was now starting to worry a bit, even wondering if him and his brothers should write home about it. 

December was there, and Professor McGonagall gave them a list to fill for the students staying in Hogwarts for Christmas. With little surprise, almost every student had quickly booked their seat on the Hogwarts' Express back to London, eager to get back to their families and away from the danger that seemed to hover around the school. 

Ron had told them he had heard that Draco Malfoy was staying in Hogwarts; which made them all very suspicious, so Ron, Harry and Hermione signed the list, figuring out the holidays would be a great opportunity to try and get informations out of him using the Polyjuice Potion. 

Raven had volunteered to stay too; her tutor, Sinclair, would be busy all holidays and Raven thought her friends could use her _smartness_ , she had told them. Octavia had hesitated, but had finally decided to go home with Bellamy for the holidays. 

Dani and Gaia were staying too, the trip too long to go back to their family in North America for only a couple of weeks, and planning to help their new friends in their tasks, eager to solve this mystery.

There now was only Clarke that didn't know what she was doing for Christmas; at home, her mother was getting worried - as she had wrote in her last letter - and wanted Clarke to come home for the holidays. Their friends could use her help in Hogwarts with their investigation and the polyjuice potion too. And Beauxbatons; Diana had wrote to her a couple of days ago, asking her if she was coming this year too, but Clarke hadn't been able to give her a proper and definite answer as Lexa seemed to avoid her -again. 

Since Colin Creevy had been attacked, the dark bags under Lexa's eyes had reappeared, even if she was trying to hide them - and Clarke was starting to know Lexa enough to see when the girl wasn't well. Clarke had tried bringing up the subject a couple of times, but Lexa had detourned the conversation every single time. 

"You still don't know?" Dani asked her cousin over breakfast. 

"No" Clarke sighed, not linking the fact that she wasn't able to plan her holidays and gently caressing Aska between his ears to calm her nerves. And she wanted to go to Beauxbâtons; she was missing her cousins, whom she felt she hadn't seen in forever. On the other side, Dani was in Hogwarts, and Clarke felt like a total brat for wanting to see her other cousins when one of them was already with her in Hogwarts. But as it seemed to be a common trait of all her family members, Dani seemed to have read in Clarke's mind. 

"It's ok if you go to Beauxbâtons for Christmas, you know?" Dani gently told Clarke in a low voice so her words would only be heard by the Blonde. "I'll still be there when you'll come back."

Clarke gratefully smiled to Dani, reassured she wasn't hurting her cousin's feelings. "Maybe you could come with me?" Clarke suggested. 

"Nah" Dani waved her off, "I don't know the Vinys very well, I'd rather stay here with my sister and your friends."

"We're your friends too now" Hermione gently offered to Dani, having overheard her words. 

"Yeah" Dani smiled a shy smile. "But, you know."

Hermione nodded, understanding the words Dani wasn't saying, echoing the concerns Dani had raised a couple of months ago about trashing Clarke's world down year after year with all the secrets and the discoveries. Clarke was going to ask about this secret exchange her cousin just seemed to have with Hermione, but didn't have time as Lexa was suddenly standing right behind her, flanked by Anya and their young cousin, Tris. 

"Clarke" Lexa greeted her, nodding to the rest of the group but looking as it was painful for her to even be standing there, so close to the rest of them. 

"Hi Lexa" Clarke smiled back, internally wondering why Lexa had come see her with her cousins around her. 

Lexa threw a meaningful glance at Anya, who rolled her eyes. 

"Come on Tris, let's go sit" Anya gestured to her cousin as they walked away. 

Lexa kept standing still as Clarke was waiting to see what Lexa could want on this Monday morning, but as Lexa still hadn't say anything after a couple of seconds, Clarke got up, Aska immediately on her heels as she nodded for Lexa to follow her. 

They got out of the Great Hall and away from all eyes, as Clarke led them to a tiny alcove in the corridor so they could talk in private without being in the middle of the flow of students. 

Lexa opened her mouth, but didn't have time to say anything as Clarke beat her to it. 

"What's up? are you sick again?" Clarke asked, roaming her friend's body with worried eyes. 

"I am fine, Clarke" Lexa shortly answered. "That is not why I wanted to talk to you."

Clarke almost answered that Lexa hadn't actually voiced wanting to talk to her, but as Lexa seemed to have trouble with social interactions, she stayed quiet and waited for Lexa. 

"I am leaving for Beauxbâtons again these holidays" Lexa stated. 

"I figured" Clarke nodded. It was logical for Lexa to go back to Beauxbâtons; it was, after all, where she lived the rest of the year when they didn't have school in Hogwarts. Her tutor was back in France, so Lexa's life was in France, too. 

Lexa looked away, suddenly appearing shy about something. "And you...?"

"Me?" Clarke raised her brows, not sure she was understanding Lexa's question. 

"You're coming?" Lexa asked. 

"Are you asking me if I want to come? Because if so, you already know the answer to that" Clarke said. 

"You're following Beauxbâtons' classes" Lexa only said. "You should come."

"You're very bad at this" Clarke chuckled as Lexa seemed to struggle with asking Clarke to come along with her like last year. Lexa, although looking a bit offended by Clarke's amusement, didn't answer anything, letting Clarke finish. 

"I'll come" Clarke smiled to her friend. 

"Okay" Lexa exhaled, looking almost relieved by the news. "We'll leave in two weeks."

"So we're not spending Christmas in Hogwarts?" Clarke frowned, remembering that last year, they had left for France right after Christmas' day and were over there for only a week. 

"I expect your cousins to want to spend Christmas with you this year" Lexa only offered. "Students in Beauxbâtons have classes during Christmas holidays, so I think they'll want you to go spend the weekend to their house."

Clarke didn't answer, already excited at the prospective of going to spend Christmas in the Meadow with the Vinys. 

"We could meet later in the library to do the paper they just spent us, if you wanted" Lexa then surprisingly offered, and Clarke found herself quite amused by the sudden shyness Lexa seemed to sport on her face. 

"Okay" Clarke agreed with a gentle smile, watching Lexa nod back and walk away. Once the Brunette was out of sight, Clarke couldn't help but do a quick victory dance, all too happy to be able to go back to Beauxbâtons and visit her cousins. 

* * *

The Deliquants - as Raven had started to call their group - had decided that they needed a diversion in one of the potions' class so they would be able to steal the missing ingredients for their polyjuice potion from Snape's private store.

It was Hermione herself that had come up with the plan; the rest of them would create a mess, keeping Snape away for a couple of minutes so she could do the stealing. Everyone had first refused to let Hermione steal for them, but the girl hadn't backed down and had explained to them that she had a clean slate - unlike them - and that she was the less likely to be expel if she was to be caught. 

And as Harry had told them, stealing behind Snape's back was worse than poking a dragon in the eye; and they really _really_ didn't want to be caught by the Professor. 

When potions' class came, everyone's stress levels were as high as they could get. No one seemed to be focused on their Swelling Potion; too distracted and waiting for Hermione's signal. 

Snape, as usual, was taking turns to bully Griffindor students while congratulating Slytherin students; but today, even Harry didn't seem to mind. Then, Hermione nudged Clarke's elbow, telling her it was time. 

Lexa threw a curious glance at Clarke while she kept stirring their potion; Clarke hadn't told her anything, because the less people knew about it, the more real the diversion would be. Clarke ignored Lexa's look and nodded to Harry. 

The boy dived under his desk, getting out one of Fred and George's inventions and quickly threw it at the front of the class, landing directly on Goyle's cauldron, making it explode. 

Screams busted from all over the classroom as the potion splashed all over the students, suddenly making their skin swell. 

"Quiet!" Quiet!" Snape was shouting into the room, trying to bring the calm down and reinstaure some discipline so he could stop the mess, "Everyone who's been in contact come forward please!"

Clarke couldn't help but snort at the sight of Draco Malfoy holding his nose that was now the size of a watermelon. She saw Hermione discreetly sneek behind the old wooden door on the other side of the classroom, directly into Snape's private stores. The diversion was working so far, so Clarke, Ron and Octavia kept spilling things over for a couple of minutes more so Hermione could come back safely into the classroom. 

Five minutes later, Hermione was back and everything was back under control. Snape wasn't happy at all; with dark eyes, he seemed to be scanning every student's mind, trying to figure out who had throw the projectile into Goyle's cauldron. 

When the bell rang, Clarke and her friends didn't waste any time and almost ran to Moaning Myrtle's tower, not wanting Snape to try to read their mind a second longer. 


	11. The Parselmouth Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and her friends go to a duelling club. There're some snakes involved, and they discover that some people happen to be bilingual. Could Harry be Slytherin's heir?

** Chapter 11: The Parselmouth Club **

The next week passed down in a blur; the cold was really starting to settle in, and every student was now eager for the term to be over so they could go home and celebrate. Clarke had spent her time between working in the library with her friends on their Hogwarts homework and with Lexa for their Beauxbâtons homework. Clarke had also spent a bit of time with Dani, who had Ilvermorny homework on top of it all, and the group was now starting to lose their brain over which school was following which course. 

As Raven was training with Ravenclaw's Quidditch Team for their next game, Clarke had been helping her do a little extra-training; Raven's injured leg was giving her a bit of trouble with adjusting herself on the broom with heavy rain. So Clarke was spending the little time she had left with her friend, trying to get her off her broom so Raven could work on her balance and her stability on her own broom. 

And Clarke had to admit, Quidditch seemed to be made for Raven; she was a very good keeper for her age, with a great vision of the game and good reflexes, which were very useful. Although Clarke had refused to go through Gryffindor's trials for the Quidditch Team because she felt like it wasn't fair to take someone's place when she liked _flying_ better than actually _playing_ , she was now finding herself eager to be on her way to France so she would be able to play a little with her cousins there. She was glad she was able to keep training with Raven; she didn't want Nathalia think she had forgotten about everything she had taught her over the summer when they would see each other again. 

"Good catch, Raven!" Clarke congratulated her friend as she had caught the thrown ball at her once again. 

"You've seen that?" Raven exclaimed, clearly proud of herself. "I even did this little twirl without falling off my broom!"

"Good job Rae" Clarke chuckled as they were flying towards the ground where Aska was impatiently waiting for Clarke to get off her broom and off the air where he couldn't follow her.

"So" Raven asked once they were walking back to the castle, "Beauxbâtons for Christmas, then?" 

"It looks like it" Clarke shrugged, "Lexa said one week wasn't enough to take classes, that we would need the full two. Besides, she thinks my cousins will take me back to the Meadow to celebrate."

"That's cool" Raven hummed, and this time Clarke knew Raven meant her words and wasn't upset about Clarke spending time with her cousins instead of them. 

"Yeah well, I hope we'll still be able to leave in a couple of weeks, with everything that's happening" Clarke sighed. 

"Diana will come fetch you if she doesn't see you appear, I wouldn't worry too much if I were you" Raven joked. 

"Yeah that might happen" Clarke chuckled, remembering as her cousin had come to Hogwarts the year before when she had heard about Clarke being in danger. "She's a bit... Protective."

" _All_ your family seems to be protective of you" Raven raised her brows at her friends, "Well... Maybe not Elena" Raven added. 

Clarke let a little laugh escape, giving reason to her friend. Elena truly was a weird person, and Clarke couldn't say she was glad to be part of the same family. "Dani says Elena cares. That she's just..." 

"Like Lexa" Raven gave an unimpressed look as Clarke was answering with a pointed look of her own. "Alright, alright, Lexa's not that bad". 

"Lexa's hiding things" Clarke sighed for what must have been the thousandth time of the day, "About me. About my family, about her own family, about all... _This_ " Clarke gestured in the air to refer to this whole _chamber of secrets_ madness they were currently going through. 

"Maybe she's not, Clarke" Raven suggested. "Not knowingly; maybe it's just the way she seems."

"Maybe" Clarke hummed, not very convinced but without any proof to say otherwise. 

* * *

Speaking of her cousins, Clarke had a thousand questions turning and turning over in her mind, and had almost written them all down on a list so she wouldn't forget to ask them to Diana - who seemed to be the one with the more knowledge about all this. 

With Hermione's help, she had tried to find out more information on the necklaces she and her cousins had; but without success. Even Hermione hadn't been able to find out a single thing about talismans that could serve as magic boosters between members sharing the same blood. 

"What's this?" Octavia gestured to a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up on the wall of the Great Hall, as they were walking by. 

"They're starting a duelling club!" Ron exclaimed, reading the piece of paper. 

"Cool" Dani hummed, "We have one of those in Ilvermorny. They're very instructive."

"That could come up in handy" Raven shrugged. 

"I don't think Slytherin's monster will duel with you, Raven" Octavia snorted, pretending to make fun of her. 

"Well you never know" Raven didn't back down, grinning to her friend, "Maybe it will get out a wand and throw a spell at me."

Clarke playfully rolled her eyes at her silly friends. 

"First meeting this evening, eight o'clock" Harry read. "Shall we go?"

Everyone seemed up for it, so when the time came, they all walked back to the Great Hall which had been re-arranged for the occasion. The long dining tables had been replaced with a long and narrow stage, large enough so two people could stand up on it and face each other. Clarke noticed that a lot of students seemed to be there; although Professor MacGonagall, standing next to the Great Hall's doors, had forbidden any student above the fifth year to attend this evening's session, so there wouldn't be too much difference between abilities. 

"Your sister is here" Octavia told Dani while nodding towards Elena, standing as upright as usual, flanked by Anya, Tris, Bellamy, and a couple other Slytherin students. Surprisingly, Lexa was there too, although she looked to be here only to watch. 

"I figured she would" Dani hummed, looking not-surprised by her sister's presence in this duelling club. "Elena excells in duelling."

"Does she now?" Raven snorted, "We couldn't have guessed that at all."

And even though Raven hadn't put any bite in her tongue, she still had a point; Elena truly looked like the kind of person who would throw a spell at you in a flick on the hand. In fact, Clarke was beginning to think she could have been a death eater, if she had been born twenty years ago and old enough to be in the war against - or _with_ \- You-Know-Who. And as Raven had said, she indeed seem to be very interested in this duelling club, almost as if she already knew she would be great at it. 

"I wonder who's teaching us?" Hermione voiced, trying to spot the Professor in charge of this club. 

And then all of them groaned when they spotted who was getting on the stage - well, everyone except for Hermione. 

"Well well, I wasn't expecting this much students" A grinning Gilderoy Lockhart got up on the stage, his smile reaching both his ears. "Professor Dumbledore has allowed me to put this club together, in case you'd need to defend yourselves. Now, may I introduce you my assistant who sportingly accepted to do a little demonstration with me; Professor Snape!"

Snape got onto the stage, although he didn't look pleased by it at all. 

"Maybe they will finish each other off" Ron muttered. 

The two teachers got face to face, getting their wands up like swords and bowing to each other before taking a few steps back. 

"Each of us will be aiming at the other to disarm him" Lockhart said wtill grinning - although Clarke couldn't understand why he would be grinning while seeing Snape's threatening face. "Not to kill, obviously."

"On the count of three..." Lockhart said, "One... Two... Three!"

"E _xpelliarmus_!" Snape cried, sending Lockhart fly back on the stage ten meters away and making him fall on his back, his wand a couple of feet behind him. 

Malfoy, Elena and the other Slytherin cheered for their teacher as Hermione kept herself from jumping onto the stage to see if Lockhart was ok. 

"Ah, there !" Lockhart got up, tyding his vest, "Thank you for showing them this Disarming Charm, Professor Snape" He grinned at Snape as if he had let the Slytherin Teacher voluntarily get the best of him. "Now, we will put you in pairs so you can practice."

Lockhart paired Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff, but as Clarke and her friends were going to put themselves in pairs, Snape reached them first. 

"Time to split up the dream team" He sneered at them, "Weasley, with Finnigan. Clarke Griffin..." He then trailed off, his dark eyes on the Blonde Gryffindor student. "You'll pair with Elena." And he turned over on his heels, quickly walking away to pair other students together. 

"Clarke, you can't" Dani quickly whispered to her cousin as Elena was walking towards them, a smirk on her face, "The necklaces won't allow it."

"What?" Clarke frowned, ready to get up on the stage. 

"The necklaces you and Elena have" Dani pressed, looking more worried by the minute and holding her cousin by the sleeve, "They won't allow spells to be thrown at each other."

"But how..." Clarke didn't have time to ask more questions as Lockhart was pushing her on the stage. 

"Your turn, Gryffindor!" He joyfully said. 

But it was without counting on Dani, set on not letting the necklaces create a mess. "I'll do it" She determinely said, pushing Clarke out of the stage and facing her sister. 

"Hi there Danielle" Elena smirked to her sister, "You should have let our little cousin do it."

"You know very well why you shouldn't be paired against each other" Dani huffed, hearing her sister call her by her full name. She was doing it on purpose, Dani knew that; but even though it may look like Elena and her weren't on good terms, they adored each other; Elena had just her own particular way of showing it. 

"I don't believe in tales, you know that" Elena shrugs. "Now come on, let's see if we've done any progress while being here." 

They raised their wands above their heads and brought them back down, saluting each other, before taking a few steps back like Snape and Lockhart had done minutes before. At the last second, Clarke thought she saw Dani's upper lip rise a little; and if she didn't know better, she could have thought Dani was actually enjoying being paired against her sister. 

And suddenly it was explosions of spells thrown at each other in a cacophony of words half-whispered and half-shouted into the air. It was beautiful, really; because they were both only twelve years old, and yet there was a magnificence in their exchange that Clarke could have easily thought they were way older than that. 

" _Levicorpus!"_ Elena cried at the same time Dani shouted " _Locomotor mortis!_ "

Both of them froze on spot, one lifted up by the ankles and the other having her legs tied up together, falling to the floor. Both being incapacitated by the other, the charms cast stopped, and they were able to get back on their feet. 

"What the hell" Raven muttered to Clarke, "I didn't know your cousins were _that_ good."

"I didn't know either" Clarke hummed, suddenly very impressed by the abilies of her cousins she was only discovering. She had known that Dani was good, but the girl had never excelled in any class, being average in all their courses. 

Both the twins had gotten back on their feet, facing each other once more, stares struck with a determination Clarke had never seen in Dani's eyes before. That's when Clarke noticed it; Dani was slowly going up in the air without Elena having cast any verbal spells, while she herself was being drawn to the floor as if an invisible force was pushing on her back to put her down. 

"That will be all" Snape interrupted them, and the twins immediately go back properly on their feet. Clarke was closely watching her cousins; Elena smirked at her, sent her a quick wink and got off the stage as Dani was back to Clarke's side once more. 

"That totally was extra-corporal magic, wasn't it?" Clarke suspiciously looked at her cousin, who only shrugged.

"You've got no proof" Dani only said; although the satisfied look on her face was proof enough. 

"What did you mean, when you said the necklaces wouldn't let us fight against each other?" Clarke inquired, thinking back to her cousin's words before she got up on the stage. 

"Well..." Dani started, but couldn't finish her sentence as Lockhart was looking through the crowd to find another two students to face each other on the duelling stage. 

"Potter! Your turn!" Gilderoy Lockhart cheerfully announced, taking the boy by the sleeve and almost throwing him on the stage. 

"May I suggest a student of my own house, perhaps?" Snape asked, although it sounded more like a statement than a question. "Malfoy!" He gestured for the blond boy to come forward. 

Clarke gave their friend a sympathetic smile as Harry had no choice but to confront a smirking Malfoy. 

"That won't end well" Octavia sighed, seeing that Draco already had a nasty light in his eyes. 

"Harry can take him" Ron confidently said, trusting his friend's abilities, "He'll shut him up."

Both boys stood facing each other, waiting for Lockhart's signal. But of course Malfoy didn't wait for the countdown to be over and hit Harry full force, sending him backwards and onto the floor. Harry quickly got up, stumbling a bit - and Clarke was worried for a second that he had taken a hit to his head - but the boy didn't waste any time and threw another spell at Malfoy. 

" _Rictusempra_ !" Harry shouted as a jet of silver light errupted from his wand and went directly to hit Malfoy in the stomach, making him fall onto his knees, clutching his belly with his arms as he started laughing uncontrollably. 

"That's the tickling Charm" Hermione whispered to Clarke, "Very clever. It's often used in duelling, as the opponent find himself unable to cast any spells as he's laughing too hard."

"I said, only disarm!" Lockhart frowned, but of course either of the boys heard him, too focused on throwing spells at each other. Both of them now back on their feet, Draco waved his wand once more. 

" _Serpensortia_!" He shouted as Clarke gasped; at the end of his wand got out a long black snake, who immediately started sliding on the floor towards Harry, too surprised to move. 

"Come on Harry, do something" Ron muttered, worried for his friend as the snake was heading straight for him. 

There were anxious cries into the crowd -mostly from first years - as they started to get out of the Great Hall, away from the menacing snake. On the stage, the snake was hissingly directing itself towards Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Hufflepuff student Snape had put Neville against at the beginning of the duelling class. As Clarke and Hermione were ready to get onto the stage to protect Harry and Justin, they suddenly froze.

Harry had spoken directly to the snake. 

"What the hell...?" Raven muttered as Harry was whispering words of another language; a language that didn't even seem _human._

"Holy crap" Ron gasped, recognising what Harry was doing, "He's a parseltmouth."

"A _what_ now?" Clarke frowned, still unsure of whether she should intervene or not. 

But the girl didn't have any more time to think about it as the snake was putting itself on its tail, facing Justin right to his face, looking ready to jump at any minute at the boy's face or at Clarke and Dani, standing right next to him. What happened next was a complete blur; Lexa was in front of Clarke in a second as Elena jumped in front of Dani, both of them having their wands out. 

Then Lexa whispered a couple of incomprehensible words to the snake at the same time Snape hit it with a spell, making it disappear into a heavy cloud of smoke. 

It was over in a matter of seconds; and Justin Finch-Fletchley, his face pale as the snow and scared to death, shouted at Harry. "What are you playing at?!"

And he went out of the Great Hall almost-running, his housemates behind him. Every other student left in the room was staring at Harry, half of them with fear and the other with a mix between wonder and uncertainty. Even Snape was watching at Harry in a curious way; but it was nothing compared to the look Clarke was giving Lexa. The Blonde was sure of it; Lexa had spoken to the snake too, in this _parselmouth_ thing Ron had spoken of earlier. 

But Ron was tugging at Harry's sleeve to get him off the stage. Elena stopped Dani from walking away by grabbing her arm, looking at her sister with a worried look on her face. Clarke had never seen Elena look anything except mad or mean, so her looking worried was a big first; which was starting to make Clarke believe that maybe she did care. 

"I'm ok" Dani told her sister with a shallow smile, still a bit shaken by what had just happened. 

Elena released her sister's arm, nodding swiftly. "I'll come find you."

Ron then hushed them forwards as they all hurried out of under the students' stares. Clarke didn't have a clue of what was going on, as Ron nor Hermione explained anything during their way back to the Gryffindor Tower. Clarke the grave look on Gaia, Dani and Octavia's faces, too; deducing that they knew something about this too. 

"You're a parselmouth" Ron finally said after pushing Harry into an armchair once they were safely back into their common room, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a _what_?" Harry asked, confused. 

"A parselmouth" Octavia repeated. "You can talk to snakes!" 

"I know" Harry shrugged, "I mean, I've done it once. With a zoo's snake. It told me it had never seen Brazil and I accidently set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard..."

"He told you it had never seen Brazil...?" Clarke incredulously repeated Harry's words. 

"So?" Harry shrugged again, "I bet a lot of wizards can do it."

"Oh no they _can't_ " Gaia hissed through her teeth, "It not a common gift."

"Harry, this is bad" Ron said. 

"What' bad?" Harry asked as Clarke could see he was starting to get angry, "What's wrong with everyone? If I hadn't told that snake to back off Justin, he would have attacked him."

"Oh, that's what you said to him?" Ron raised his brows. 

"What do you mean?" Harry frowned, "You were there. You heard."

"We heard you talk _parseltongue_ , Harry" Dani explained, "Snake language. You could have said anything for all we know."

"No wonder Justin was freaked" Raven then chuckled, "This language is creepy."

Harry gaped at them. "I spoke a _different_ language? How can I speak a different language without knowing it?"

None of them answered. 

"Is no one going to explain?" Harry grumbled again, now very fed up with all this. "Why does it matter?"

"It matters" Hermione gently started, "Because being able to speak to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for."

"That's why Slytherin house's symbol is a snake" Octavia somberly added. 

"And now the whole school is going to believe you're his great-great-great-great grandson or something" Ron sighed. 

"But I am _not_ " Harry protested with a certain shade of fear on his face. 

"You'll find that hard to prove" Hermione stated. "He lived over a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be."

They stayed silent for a couple of seconds, trying to take all of this in. Then, Clarke, who hadn't spoken a word since the beginning of her friends' explanation on Harry's discovered gift, spoke up.

"I think Lexa is a parselmouth too" Clarke murmured. "I've heard her; right before Snape made the snake disappear."

"But that's impossible" Dani frowned, "I've spent time with her when she was a kid. I've never seen her talk to snakes."

"And that is not a common gift" Gaia frowned. "Two parselmouths into the same school? It can't be."

"Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean she can't do it" Hermione frowned, echoing Dani's words and trying to understand what it meant. 

"Lexa has a good poker face" Raven agreed with Hermione. "If she truly is a perselmouth, she could have easily hidden it."

"I mean, we've always had suspicions about Lexa being of Salazar's family tree" Octavia thoughtfully said, "This is another thing that might prove our theory to be true..."

"But Lexa would never hurt anyone" Clarke protested, "I don't think she's evil."

"But how well do you know her anyways, Clarke?" Raven frowned at her friend's words, "You've said it yourself. She's hiding things. For all we know _she_ is the hair of Slytherin."

"Plus, your brother told us last year the sorting hat had never talked while sorting the Woods wizards, right?" Octavia added, talking to Ron about Percy, "And her whole family has been sorted into Slytherin."

Clarke frowned, but didn't answer; herself wasn't that sure of Lexa not being involved in all this mess. Her physical traits she shared with the man, her sorting into Slytherin House, the tiredness they had seen on her face for the last couple of months, and now the ability to speak parseltongue... It was almost too big to be true. 

"Well, I still think it's Malfoy" Ron shrugged, "He is way too happy about all this."

"I can't wait for this polyjuice potion to be ready" Raven agreed. 

* * *

Clarke had gone in search of Lexa so they could work on their last essay for Beauxbâtons before classes were over. Outside, snow was falling hard, and herbology classes today had been canceled because the snow was too thick to even walk outside to the green houses. 

Dani was slouched into one of Gryffindor's couches, a bit tired by all the recent events. Was Hogwarts even safe, with everything that was going on? Dani wasn't afraid for her own life; but afraid for Clarke's. Even though Dani had never really taken part of the heavy family discussions, she was still aware of Clarke carrying a heavy legacy; a legacy her whole family seemed to be ready to die to protect. 

Dani didn't know any details, but she knew it was big and important; maybe even bigger than what Harry was destined to. _It is not over_ , her father had told her one time, when Dani had been asking questions about the Wizarding War against Voldemort. The truth was, no one knew what had happened to him, that night when he had tried to harm Harry; and with last year's events, Dani was sure of it. Voldemort was alive, and was just binding his time until he could come back to full power. 

"Are you ok?"

Dani jumped a little, not having heard Hermione sitting on the couch next to her.

"Yeah" Dani sighed, "I'm just tired, I guess."

Hermione looked at her with eyes that seemed to read straight into Dani's thoughts. "You worry about Clarke." Hermione stated. 

Dani sadly chuckled, because of course Hermione would see right through her. 

"Dark times are coming, Hermione" Dani said. "And I don't know how we're going to all get through this."

"Together" Hermione shrugged as if it was obvious. 

"You don't understand" Dani murmured, thinking about Clarke and Harry and the roles they would have to play in the upcoming years. 

"Actually, I think I do" Hermione gently answered. "I may be muggle-born, but I mean, it's obvious. Clarke and Harry are meant for greater things. I don't know what, but their time will come."

"Elena is better at all this than me" Dani sighed. "She always seem to know what is going to happen."

"Your sister is an interesting person" Hermione hummed. 

Dani nodded, still lost in her thoughts. "I kind of miss her, you know?" Dani then chuckled. "We're usually always together."

"That's what twins do, right?" Hermione let a little laugh escape, then turned around, having heard a door open. "Speaking of..." Hermione trailed off, as Dani frowned and turned over. 

Elena was entering Gryffindor's common room, getting out of the secret passage Raven was always using. 

"Elena" Dani sighed with relief as she quickly got up and threw herself at her sister's neck. 

"Hi Danielle" Elena murmured back, who closed her arms around her sister, hugging her tight. 

"I see Raven has shown you her secret passage" Hermione smiled to the Ilvermorny girl, surprised - in a good way - about the show of affection Elenawas now displaying for her sister. 

"She didn't" Elena smirked, answering to Hermione. "I secretly followed her once."

Hermione chuckled, thinking that Raven wouldn't be too pleased to know she had been followed around. Hermione then nodded goodbye at Elena and went upstairs to read up some more and give the twins a little privacy. 

* * *

"Are you ok?" Elena worriedly asked her sister once they were alone in Gryffindor's common room. 

"I am now" Dani sighed against her sister's chest. 

"What the hell were you doing, standing in front of that snake?" Elena grumbled to her twin, "Do you got a death wish or something?"

"And what do you wanted me to do?" Dani answered in a huff, "It's not like I could have predicted Malfoy was going to make a snake appear."

Elena threw an unimpressed look at her sister as she was playing dumb. "You could have step aside" Elena said. 

"I'm ok, Elena" Dani told her sister for the second time today -although she was glad Elena was presently by her side. 

"Don't go play hero, Danielle, alright?" Elena then sighed, hugging her sister once more. "Whatever it is you're doing with Griffin and her friends. Don't take risks."

"We will have to take risks soon enough" Dani retorted. " _You_ take risks. Do you think I don't see you, manigancing with Anya and Bellamy?" 

"It's different" Elena shrugged, releasing her sister from her embrace. 

"It is not" Dani raised an unconvinced brow at her twin, "We're exactly the same age."

"No we're not" Elena smirked, "I was born ten minutes before you."

Dani rolled her eyes, playfully pushing her sister away from her. They stayed quiet a couple of seconds, only looking at the other. 

"I miss you" Dani then murmured. "My magic is weakening." She stated. 

"I know" Elena hummed, a sympathetic smile on her lips in understanding of what her sister was feeling, "Mine, too. We've never been so far away from each other. But we'll be back in America soon enough" She told her sister, trying to cheer her up. 

"They think Lexa might be Slytherin's heir" Dani then told her sister, closely watching her reaction. As on cue, Elena froze her movements, to quickly mask it a second later. 

"Do they now? I thought they believed it was Malfoy" Elena said, her voice strangely a pitch higher than usual. 

"Well, Malfoy too" Dani confirmed. 

Elena hummed, choosing not to comment on what her sister had just told her. 

"What do you think?" Dani then asked. 

"Well I don't think Malfoy is clever enough to be Slytherin's heir and open the Chamber of Secrets" Elena snorted, "And if he is, I pity Slytherin who must be turning over in his grave."

Dani chuckled, 100% agreeing with her twin. Elena looked at the big clock in Gryffindor's common room, noticing it was time for her to go back to Slytherin's dungeon before her absence would be noticed. 

"Stay safe Danielle" She murmured, "Ok?"

Dani nodded, choosing not to correct her sister who - once more - had called her by her full name. 

"Promise me" Elena insisted, with a weird look on her face Dani had not seen often on her sister's face. 

"I promise" Dani said, hoping it would be enough for Elena to stop worrying; even if she knew full well nothing on Earth would ever make Elena stop worrying about her. 

Elena nodded looking a bit less worried. "We _will_ get through this. You'll see."

And after a last look at her twin, she was gone by the secret passage and away from Gryffindor's Tower. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, quick question: I originally had written chapter 10 and 11 to be one chapter at first, but thought that it would be too long. What do you think? Do you prefer being able to read short chapters, or longer ones? Let me know, and thanks for reading! ;)


	12. Can A Ghost Die Twice?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Clarke find themselves in yet another weird situation. Can you put a ghost on pause? They can't wait for the holidays to be here.

** Chapter 12 : Can A Ghost Die Twice?  **

Clarke was walking in the castle's corridors, coming from the library where she had spent the last two hours studying with Lexa on a particular hard essay they had to write for Beauxbâtons. Then, Aska barked and lightly trotted off a few feet ahead of her probably recognising someone they knew and making the girl look up. Harry was walking a few meters from her, seemingly lost in his thoughts. 

"Harry, wait up!" Clarke called up to him, fastening her pace to catch up. 

"Hi Clarke" He greeted her, "What have you been up to?"

"Studying with Lexa" Clarke told him, "What about you?"

"I wanted to find Justin" Harry sighed, "After what happened in the duelling club... I wanted to explain, I guess."

"I bet he knows you weren't telling the snake to attack him" Clarke sympathetically said. Although Clarke still had trouble believing someone could speak to snakes and understand them, she had no doubts about what Harry was saying. 

"I wouldn't be too sure about that" Harry sadly chuckled, "I overheard some Hufflepuffs talk. They say I'm a dark wizard, and that's why Voldemort wanted to kill me; so I wouldn't be competing with him."

"And everyone knows hufflepuffs are not known for their wisdom" Clarke snorted. "Don't give too much thoughts about what people say, Harry. What matters is what _you_ believe."

"If only it was that easy..." Harry then stopped talking, frowning and looking in front of him. "Wait, what is that?"

Clarke looked up too; at the same time, Aska quickly came back to her side, lowly growling. 

"What is _what_?" Clarke asked his friend, having heard or seen nothing at all. 

"It's this voice again" Harry murmured, looking all around him as if he was trying to determine something, "It's moving away..."

And he took off, Clarke following after him. 

"What are you talking about?" Clarke called up, "I can't heard anything!"

"This way!" Harry gestured instead of answering her. 

They ran through an old corridor Clarke had never set foot on; suddenly, Harry froze in front of her. Clarke hadn't time to stop herself, and came hitting him full force, sending the both of them on the ground. 

"Why did you stop?" Clarke asked him, "What..."

Her sentence went unfinished as a weight dropped in her stomach; in front of them, Justin was laying on the cold floor, completely still and looking grey. 

"He's petrified" Harry murmured in a mix of fear and surprise, daring to raise his hand to touch Justin. 

Clarke got on her feet, coming closer to Justin and touching his skin in turn. It was an pale as the stone they were walking on. 

"Clarke, look" Harry then said in a whisper. 

Nearly Headless Nick was floating above them, completely still too, as if the ghost had been set on pause or something. 

"What the hell..." Clarke trailed off, but didn't have time to think more about it as a voice make itself heard behind them and they both jumped out of fear. 

"Potter! You again! Caught on the crime scene!" Filch screamed. 

And of course his shouts were enough for Professor McGonagall to set foot in the corridor half-a-second later, eyes widening while she was taking the scene in. To her credit she didn't yell, deeply breathing instead. 

"Potter, Griffin" She said in a voice Clarke had never heard her use before, "This is out of my hands. Follow me."

Anxious, Clarke threw a glance at Harry, who didn't look better than she felt; twice now, they had been caught up on a ambigious situation; and the teachers wouldn't let them off the hook that easily this time. 

Professor McGonagall lead them in the corridors, and she suddenly stopped in front of a large wall, sporting what must be a gargoyle. 

"Sherbet lemon!" McGonagall said. 

Clarke raised a brow and threw an interrogative look at her friend; where the hell was the teacher taking them? Suddenly, the gargoyle spread to life, moving to the side as the wall was parting itself in two and revealed a secret staircase into the stone. 

Harry paled, and Clarke with him; on the door in front of them was a brass knocker in the shape of a griffon; they were going to where Dumbledore lived. 

"We're screwed" Harry discreetly whispered to Clarke, who didn't answer but who couldn't help but agree with the boy. 

"Aska, stay close" Clarke murmured to her dog; but it was more to distract herself really, because Aska was _always_ staying close to Clarke. McGonagall knocked onto the door, telling them to wait outside while she was sliding behind the door and closing it behind herself. 

Fidgeting, Harry took a couple of steps around, inspecting what were on the shelves around them. Figuring they hadn't much to do, Clarke did the same, looking around at the many objects that were dispatched all around the room. Trophee cups, ancient books, weird objects Clarke couldn't guess what their uses were, and a thousand portraits of wizards and witches adorned the walls. 

Then, Clarke jumped in surprise at a sudden voice in the room. She quickly turned around, and spotted the source of the voice she thought she had already heard somewhere. The sorting hat was sitting on some of the highest shelves, looking as worn out as the day it had been put on the Blonde's head. 

"You've been wondering if I put you in the right house" The sorting hat told Harry, "Yes you've been quite difficult to place. But I stand by what I've told you that day. You would have done well in Slytherin."

Clarke frowned, not really understanding what the sorting hat was talking about; was Harry not supposed to be in Gryffindor?

"And you, Miss Griffin" The sorting hat then adressed Clarke who slightly jumped again at not having expected the magic hat to speak to her, "Although of course I didn't expect to see another Griffin," The hat said as if Clarke was supposed to know what it meant, "There was absolutely no doubts about where to put you."

"What do you..." Clarke started, but didn't have time to ask more questions to the sorting hat as a gagging-sound made itself heard behind them. They turned around in a second, trying to spot the source of the noise. 

A half-plucked bird was standing onto a golden perch, Aska resting at its feet. Clarke frowned; why Aska hadn't barked at the bird's presence, as he was usually doing for everyone and everything else new? 

"It looks sick, right...?" Harry wondered at loud, curiously watching the bird that seemed to be as old as Filch. 

"It better not die while we're here because we're going to be accused of..." But once more Clarke hadn't time to finish her sentence as the bird suddenly erupted into flames and was burnt down in seconds. 

"What the..." Harry trailed off, still shocked and looking at the now bird-ashes resting at the foot of the perch, Aska sniffing them. 

"Aska, come" Clarke ordered her dog; then froze. 

Dumbledore was suddenly standing in front of them, looking half-mad and half-worried. 

"Professor, your bird, we..." Harry tried to explain, but of course Dumbledore knew about it already and adressed them a kind smile. 

"About time" He gently told them, "He's been looking dreadful for days, I've been telling him to get a move on." Then, the old man chuckled at the incredoulous looks on their faces. 

"Fawkes is a phoenix" He explained. "They burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch..." He gestured to the pile of ashes. 

A little bird poked his head through the ashes, looking as ugly as the now-dead one. 

"Too sad you've seen him on Burning Day" Dumbledore then told them, sitting down at his desk, "He is rather really handsome most of the time; beautiful red and gold plumage." he stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, seemingly lost in his own mind, then starting talking again. "Wonderful creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing properties. And they make very _faithful_ pets." He added, suddenly looking at Aska and Clarke. 

Clarke frowned, wondering why Dumbledore would look at them. Clarke lowered her eyes to look at her dog, would only looked at her with his grin and gave her a quick lick on her fingers. With Fawkes' burning down to ashes, Clarke had almost forgotten about the reason why they were currently into Dumbledore's office. Everything was quickly reminded to them when Dumbledore stopped talking and watched them with his piercing eyes which seemed to read into them like open books. Harry and Clarke were ready to argue to their defenses, but Dumbledore beat them to it. 

"I do not think either of you did it" He started. 

Clarke and Harry's eyebrows shot up, not believing the Professor's words. 

"You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully. 

"No" Dumbledore confirmed, "But I still want to talk to you."

They both nervously waited as Dumbledore seemed to be reading their minds again. 

"I must ask you if there's anything you'd want to tell me. Either of you" He asked, his face sombre again. "Anything at all."

They stayed silent for a couple of seconds; Clarke wondered if Harry was going to tell Dumbledore about being a parselmouth and hearing voices in the corridors. 

But Harry spoke up. "No, Professor. Nothing at all."

Dumbledore didn't look very convinced, but said nothing. 

"Be careful, both of you" He only told them after a few seconds, nodding to them as a permission to leave his office. Not wanting to see if he would change his mind, Clarke and Harry hurried out of the office, still a bit in shock with what had happened. 

* * *

"You're alright?" Clarke asked her friend on their way back to the Gryffindor dorms, who nodded. 

"Yeah" Harry said in a sigh, "You?"

Clarke nodded back, then thinking about the sorting hat's words. 

"What was that about?" They both said at the same time, chuckling when they realised. 

"You first" Clarke told Harry as they began walking. 

"The sorting hat said he hadn't been expecting another Griffin" Harry asked, "What does it mean?"

"I don't know" Clarke truthfully said, "I don't know much about the Griffins, really. Up until last year, I thought neither my dad nor my mother had relatives, so..." The Blonde trailed off, as curious about the sorting hat's words than Harry. Maybe Diana could tell her more about this when she would go visit them in France. "Well, I know that my parents probably went to Hogwarts..."

"It's weird that the hat didn't think he would _see_ another Griffin" Harry thought at loud, "It's almost as if you weren't supposed to come here. As if no Griffin would ever come to Hogwarts after your parents."

"Well, my Mom _did_ say she tried to keep me from going" Clarke murmured, still hurt about her mother's decision to hide the magic world from her. "That's why they kept me in the dark."

"But your cousins are called Griffin too" Harry shrugged, "They're from your father's side. Maybe they know more about it."

"Who?" Clarke frowned, "Their last name is Viny."

"Not them" Harry shook his head. "Dani and Elena, the twins. They are Griffins too."

Clarke stopped in her tracks. She had never thought to ask the twins for their last name. 

"How do you know that?" Clarke asked her friend, resuming their walk towards the dorms. 

"Danielle wrote it down when she applied for the duelling club" Harry confessed, "But I thought you already knew."

"I... I actually didn't think to ask" Clarke appeared sheepish, because it kind of was a shame she hadn't thought about it herself. Dani had indeed explained that they were linked through their gran-gran-gran-fathers, and if Dani and Elena also were cousins to the Vinys, then of course it was from her father's side. 

Harry hummed as they took the next left turn in silence, and then appeared thoughtful, almost as if he was deciding on his next words.

"When we were sorted, last year" He started knowing it was his turn to answer Clarke's question. There was a hint of hesitation on his voice. "The sorting hat didn't know where to put me. And I asked him to _not_ put me in Slytherin." The boy confessed in a murmur. 

Clarke's eyebrows shot up; she didn't know you could actually _ask_ the sorting hat about the house you wanted to be in. 

"It told me House Slytherin would _help me on the way to greatness_ " Harry quote the sorting hat's words, "But I don't know. With meeting Malfoy... I guess I didn't want to have anything to do with this kind of people."

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Clarke asked. She wasn't mad that Harry hid it from them, she was just curious about the reasons why he had kept it to himself. 

"I didn't think it mattered at first" Harry shrugged, "But then, with all this heir-madness... I don't want anybody to say the sorting hat had made a mistake or something."

"Yeah" Clarke agreed, "Maybe it was better to hide it indeed. People would believe the first rumor they heard, even the dumbest one."

Harry nodded, reassured that Clarke didn't seem to be mad he hadn't told them earlier. But then again, he had only told Clarke today, and although he couldn't be sure she wouldn't tell the others, he had a feeling Clarke was going to keep the information to herself. While they walked, Harry found himself studying Clarke a little closely. He didn't know her well still, but he could see the born leader hiding behind those clear blue eyes. By the way Raven and Octavia were acting with her, it was clear Clarke was the one in charge, even if the Blonde wasn't ready to take on the role quite yet. 

They entered Gryffindor's common room where their friends were waiting for them; even Raven and Gaia were there. Harry noticed how suddenly all eyes were freezing on their figures; probably, they had already heard about what happened. 

"We..." Clarke started to want to explain - although she didn't really know what to say - but Hermione was already shaking her head. 

"We know. What happened?" She asked, wanting to know more details about what had taken place merely an hour ago. 

"I... I heard that voice again" Harry confessed. "Through the walls. We followed it, and found Justin laying on the floor, petrified."

"Nearly-headless nick was floating in the air, like he had been set on pause or something" Clarke added, shivering just a bit. 

"This is starting to become really creepy" Raven muttered. "I don't like it one bit". 

"Well we're still safe in Hogwarts, right...?" Clarke said, although she was starting to doubt it herself. 

"I suppose" Hermione shrugged. "Christmas break is almost here anyways, the polyjuice should be ready by then."

No one seemed to know what to say afterwards; they said goodnight to each other, and they all went to their beds, thinking of the recent events. 

* * *

The few days, all the students were talking about was only around Justin and nearly Headless Nick, and a slight wind of panic was starting to rise at the school. Almost every kid had taken a sit on the Hogwarts Express back home, no one wanting to stay in a place where a _ghost_ could die a second time. Well, they knew that Nick wasn't _dead_ really - he had died once already - but only petrifie; it didn't seem to reassure the students and their parents. 

"At this rhythm, we'll be the only ones left" Ron mumbled one morning. 

"Fine by me" Octavia shrugged, not really caring. "We'll be able to put our plan to motion without anyone stucking their nose into it."

Hermione nodded, her too having decided to not go home for Christmas and stay in Hogwarts with the rest of them. Dani looked over to her cousin, who seemed lost in her thoughts - as she had been for the last couple of days. 

"What's troubling you?" Dani finally asked to Clarke, gently nudging her with her elbow. 

"I'm leaving for France in a couple days" Clarke said, sighing. "I don't know if I should."

"Yes you should" Dani frowned. "You were excited to go see the Vinys last month. What changed?"

"Everything changed" Clarke replied. "Justin, Nick... I'm not so sure about Hogwarts being the safest place anymore."

"If you worry about our well-being, well don't worry" Dani chuckled. "We will be fine without you."

But Clarke being Clarke, she didn't really look convinced. 

"There is nothing more that you could do" Dani told her cousin. "Go to France. Enjoy the holidays with your cousins. We will still be there when you come back. And we'll write to you in a week, if it can help settle your mind."

"And the polyjuice potion, what if it goes wrong?" Clarke asked. 

"I don't know how it can go wrong if _Hermione_ is the one making it" Dani snorted, as Hermione, who could hear their talk, stuck her tongue out at Dani. 

Clarke sighed again. "But you're only here for a few months left..."

"Go to France, Clarke" Dani repeated, a gentle smile on her face. "We have all the time we want."

"Yeah, go see your cousins" Raven told the Blonde - and for maybe the first time, Raven was actually genuine with sending Clarke away from herself. "You'll come back soon enough."

Clarke nodded to them, feeling just a little bit less guilty about leaving them when times were so uncertain. 

* * *

Lexa was walking into the corridors, heading out from the Great Hall and in direction of Slytherin Dungeon. She was leaving for Beauxbâtons in a couple weeks, and she needed to pack her bags. Speaking of France; Clarke was coming along this year too. Lexa was trying to _not_ be enthusiasmed by this prospect, but if she was honest with herself... Her life was less lonely since she had met Clarke. 

Sighing, Lexa pushed the door open after mumbling the password. Slytherin dungeon was probably the most secured quarters into the whole castle; Gryffindor common rooms were an open door honestly, with how many people could come and go without even being Gryffindor students. Raven, one of Clarke's friends, was always hanging out with the rest of them there, using whatever way she had found. She quickly got down the stairs to her dorm, grabbing her suitcase and putting it on her bed so she could start to pack. 

"Lexa" A voice said, stopping Lexa's trail of thoughts. 

"Elena" Lexa replied, nodding to the American girl. 

"You're leaving for France, correct?" The Brunette asked, eyes narrowed at her. And Lexa had to admit, Elena having one eye green and one eye blue was kind of giving her an intimidating look. 

But Lexa wouldn't be Lexa if she could be so easily impressed. 

"I am" Lexa only confirmed, grabbing a couple shirts and putting them into her suitcase. 

"I've been told Clarke was to go with you" Elena continued. 

"She is, yes" Lexa nodded again, trying hard to seem unfazed by the girl's questions.

From the corner of her eyes, Lexa saw Elena took a few steps closer. The girl was looking right into Lexa's eyes; almost as if trying to gauge her. And then, Elena said something Lexa couldn't have guessed. 

"You _will_ protect her" Elena told Lexa in a low voice. "Whatever she encounters. You will protect her."

Lexa slightly raised her chin. "So you _do_ care about her, then." 

Lexa hadn't spoken about it with Clarke; but she could tell the two girls didn't really go along, unlike Clarke and her other American Dani, Elena's twin sister. And it was weird, when she thought about it; every each of Clarke's cousins had been thrilled to get to meet her and spend time with her. And yet, to Elena it seemed Clarke was more of a nuisance than of a lost family relative she could reconnect with. 

"Whether I care or not isn't the subject" Elena replied, as enigmatically as ever. "You will protect her, with your life if you must. Is that understood?"

"I do not answer to you, Elena from Ilvermorny" Lexa said, standing a little straighter to prove her point. "I will protect Clarke. But not because you so _kindly_ asked it of me."

Elena didn't answer right away, as she seemed to be studying Lexa for a couple of minutes, searching for something on her face. Whether she found what she was looking for, Lexa couldn't know. 

"I could almost think you care, too" Elena then stated. 

"I thought we agreed it was not about whether we cared?" Lexa raised a brow. 

Elena hummed, looking one last time at Lexa. The next second, she was out the door and Lexa was back to packing her things. 


	13. Iago De Beaufort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa go back to Beauxbatons for Christmas and Clarke meets new people. Some ambassadors disagree with Lexa, and everyone is talking about Quidditch.

** Chapter 13 : Iago De Beaufort**

A couple more days of class, and Christmas break was finally here. Since Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick had been petrified, the school had been stuck into a very weird mood when half the students didn't want to come back to Hogwarts after Christmas while the other half were constantly asking to Harry how he had done it and why. Clarke was also in people's minds; because of Aska, they were starting to question why she had been allowed to have a _dog_ in school as the rest of them could only bring an owl or cat or toad. Being caught with Harry last time someone had been petrified didn't help her case, either. 

It was finally time for Clarke and Lexa to leave Hogwarts and begin their trip to France; and Clarke couldn't wait to be reunited with her cousins again - and all their friends in Beauxbatons. 

"You've got everything you need?" Octavia asked Clarke, helping her secure the locks on her suitcase. 

"I think so" Clarke shrugged, "But I won't be gone too long so I should be ok."

Octavia smiled to her friend; she could see that Clarke was as excited to go as she was anxious to leave them for a couple weeks. 

"We _will_ be ok Clarke, you know that, right?" 

"I know, I know" Clarke sighed, lightly scratching behind Aska's ears - as she was often doing when she had heavy thoughts on her mind. 

"Yeah, we'll be fine" Someone repeated from behind Clarke. 

Raven had just come into the room, a grin on her face. Clarke smiled back; she was happy to see that Raven was doing ok with her leaving to go with her cousins. It had been difficult, at first, but now Raven seemed to have understood that Clarke could care for a _lot_ of people at the same time without forgetting about them. After all, Octavia and Raven were _family_ to her too. 

Ron, Harry, Hermione and Dani were in Gryffindor's common room, waiting for Clarke to come down so they could say goodbye. 

"Alright, listen to whatever Hermione tells you, okay?" Clarke joked, as Hermione was winking at her. 

"Have fun in France, Clarke" Hermione murmured to the Blonde, giving her a quick hug. 

"Dani..." Clarke started, still feeling a little bit guitly at leaving her behind. 

"Don't start, Griffin" Dani playfully hit Clarke on the shoulder before pulling her for another hug. "We'll see you in a couple of weeks."

And with a last look at them, Clarke was out of the room and away to France. 

* * *

Clarke had her nose stuck to the window, eager to see the high towers of Beauxbâtons Castle appear in the misty mountains landscape. With everything that had been going on in Hogwarts since the beginning of the school year, she was grateful she was able to escape the heavy atmosphere for a couple of weeks.

Of course, she wouldn’t be Clarke if she didn’t feel guilty with leaving her friends behind; after all, they had a mission to accomplish, and while she trusted them to be able to handle the polyjuice potion just fine on their own – after all, Hermione was with them – she still felt bad about leaving them during this troubled times.

She also felt a bit of guilt at leaving Dani in Hogwarts; they hadn’t talked about it, but Clarke often found herself wondering if she would continue to see Dani after this school year; would they visit? Would Clarke visit? It was easier with her French cousins, because their countries weren’t that far away, but America was not a next-door country.

Clarke then felt Aska shift at her feet, and she looked down at him; he was grinning at the landscape outside of the cartridge with a goofy expression. 

“We’re almost there” Clarke grinned too, lightly scratching behind her dog’s ears. “You’re excited?”

Aska only barked; and Clarke took it as a yes. He wouldn’t be that happy in a couple days, when Clarke would be high up on her broom, playing Quidditch with her cousins and away from the ground he stood on. Clarke still didn’t know why, but Aska hated when she was on a broom. Well, to be honest, Aska hated every time that Clarke was only even a meter away from him…

The magical cartridge finally landed in front of the school, and Clarke couldn’t help her grin to grow bigger as she spotted Diana Viny, her oldest cousin, already on the porch of the school and obviously waiting for her.

They were barely still on the ground that Clarke had already opened the door, throwing herself out, Aska on her heels, and running over to her cousin. Opening her arms with a smile, Diana was already waiting and caught Clarke when they collided, hugging her tight.

“Diana” Clarke breathed out into the hug, the tension slowly fading from her body, as she could feel the faint tingling of her necklace glowing on her chest, when next to Diana's. 

“Hi, Blondie” Diana grinned at her younger cousin. “You’re ok? Did you have a good trip?”

"Yeah" Clarke smiled back. The Blonde loved that Diana always seem to be there, waiting to greet her. As if she knew she was all that Clarke needed at the time. And she probably _did_ know; after all, she was the older sibling of four, and taking care of others was her specialty. She was much like Bellamy, in this way. 

“Come on” Diana nudged her forwards, “People are waiting for you.”

Clarke nodded and started to follow her cousin; but she remembered she hadn’t come here alone, and turned over to look at Lexa.

There was an odd expression on her face that Clarke couldn’t quite describe; almost like Lexa was longing for something? Their eyes crossed each other, and Lexa gave her a quick nod; telling her it was ok to go.

Clarke gave her a grateful smile, and followed Diana inside.

* * *

Lexa was left alone on the front porch as people were taking their luggage to bring them to their room. Internally sighing, Lexa took the time to take a good look around; she didn’t know when would be the next time she’d be able to do it.

“Heda, you’ve arrived” A voice then took her out of her own thoughts. The Brunette didn’t need to turn around to know whom that voice belonged to.

“Titus” She greeted her tutor.

“I hope your travel was without trouble?” The man asked; although it sounded more like a formality than a question he actually cared about the answer.

“None” Lexa blankly answered, not really in the mood for small talk. But then again, what would follow would probably _not_ be small talk. Titus wasn't known for trying to be her friend. 

“I heard the situation in Hogwarts was becoming uncertain” The man started again as they begin to walk towards inside the school.

“Which situation?” Lexa asked; although they both know she is aware of what he is speaking of.

“We fear it is not safe for you, Heda” He told her. “You should consider staying here for the remaining semester.”

“Who is _we_ , Titus?” Lexa had just arrived and she was already tired of talking with her advisor.

“The ambassadors, Heda” Titus explained. “They grow restless.”

“The ambassadors should not have a say in my whereabouts” Lexa dryly answered, nodding to one of the students she recognized to be of Ombrelune House as a greeting. Joanne, her name was, Lexa remembered. 

“But they _do_ ” Titus reminded her.

“I am Heda, Titus” Lexa told him, frank enough so he would understand this was the end of the conversation. “I will do as I say, and they will accept it.”

Titus almost looked like he wanted to contest and argue some, but apparently decided against it as he only sighed, lowering his head in acceptance of Lexa’s words.

“Yes, Lexa” He slightly bowed to her, and left her side.

Alone once more, Lexa quickly made her way towards the dorm room she would share with Clarke; although she wasn’t sure of that, now that she was close to her cousins and had friends in Beauxbâtons. Maybe the Blonde would now want to share their dorms instead of staying with Lexa. 

Lexa deeply hoped that she wouldn’t.

* * *

“So, what’s new in Hogwarts?” Harper asked Clarke as they were sitting in Beauxbâtons’ common room.

“Nothing much” Clarke quickly answered; but under her friends’ doubtful looks, she knew they had probably heard about Hogwarts’ rumors anyways. “Well, there’s this Slytherin heir thing…”

“What’s a Slytherin again?” Wick frowned, remembering having heard the name somewhere.

“It is one of Hogwarts’ founders” Jade answered. The Viny girl didn’t have class that day, so she had happily told Clarke she would spend the day by her side and help her settle down.

“Yes” Clarke confirmed. “But at the end, he didn’t agree with the other three founders about who could attend scholarship in Hogwarts, so he parted ways with the other.”

“What do you mean, _about who could attend_ …?” Murphy asked, a bit confused. Wasn’t Hogwarts a school for wizards only?

Clarke quickly took a look around; she didn’t know how things worked in Beauxbâtons; in fact, she was now just realizing that she didn’t know if her Beauxbâtons friends were _pure-blood_ wizards and witches.

“Salazar Slytherin thought that only pure-blood wizards could attend Hogwarts” Clarke told them, lowering her voice so only their table could hear her words. “He didn’t want _mud blood_ kids to be able to come and learn magic.”

“Mud blood kids?” It was Jade that asked for clarification this time.

Clarke internally face-palmed; their English abilities were so great she was often forgetting it wasn’t their native tongue.

“Kids born from non-magic parents” Clarke clarified. “Or from only one parent who’s magical.”

“Like me, you mean” Emori murmured.

Clarke opened her mouth to speak, but closed it as fast, not finding anything to answer. 

“Emori’s parents weren’t wizards” Murphy explained to the Blonde. “They casted her out the day they found out.”

Clarke didn’t say a word; it kind of reminded her of Harry’s aunt and uncle who were treating him like he had a disease that needed to be exterminated.

“It’s ok” Emori smiled at her, waving it off as if she had accepted it a long time ago – although Clarke could see it still pained the girl a little. “I’m better off, anyways.”

Clarke nodded, offering a gentle smile at her friend.

“So, this Slytherin guy you were talking about?” Harper re-centered the conversation again.

“Yes” Clarke focused back on it, “So before he left, the rumor says he built something, like a secret room, somewhere into Hogwarts.”

“That’s cool” Wick grinned, a light of mischief lighting up in his eyes as Harper was rolling her eyes and lightly punching him on the arm, silently telling him to focus.

“The rumor says only Slytherin’s true heir can open this _Chamber of Secrets_ , as it’s called” Clarke continued. “This chamber is also supposed to hold some kind of monsters who’s supposed to get Hogwarts rid of all mudbloods.”

They all stayed silent, mouths gaping at her with the pieces of information she had just delivered.

“Clarke, it’s time you come study in Beauxbâtons for good” Jade resolutely said.

“Is every year in Hogwarts like this?” Harper asked in disbelief, “I thought you had barely escaped death last year!”

“And she _did_.” A voice said as someone was sitting down next to Clarke.

“Nathalia” Clarke grinned to her cousin, opening her arms and briefly hugging her cousin who had just come out of her class – and who had apparently rushed to get to the main room to greet Clarke. The rest of the table threw glances at the new arrival, as Nathalia was never hanging out like this with other students. But the girl didn't seem to have noticed it. 

“Diana told me about what’s happening in Hogwarts” Nathalia said, sitting down at the table and ignoring their curious looks. “You’re ok?”

“Yeah, we were talking about it” Clarke gestured to their friends.

The rest of them were weirdly looking at Nathalia and Jade; it wasn't that they didn't like the Viny girls, but it was more that the girls had always been part of a _"superior"_ part of Beauxbâtons students and had never shown any interest in the rest of them. 

“So, who do you think is heir?” Murphy asked, trying to act like nothing was out of the ordinary.

“We don’t know” Clarke said; it wasn’t strictly the truth, because they sure had an idea about the culprit already, but she didn’t want to share those informations just yet. They didn’t know Harry, and they barely knew her; she didn’t want them to have false ideas or something.

* * *

As they had arrived in middle-afternoon before the weekend, sun was already starting to fade behind the mountains, and after sharing a good meal with her Beauxbâtons friends, it was already time for Clarke to go back to her dorms and get a good night of sleep so she could be well-rested for classes tomorrow.

She gently pushed the door open, gesturing to Aska to enter the room – who ran over to Clarke’s bed and jumped on it, making himself comfortable and closing it after herself.

“Clarke.” Lexa was already in the room, changed into her pyjamas, and looked surprised to see her here.

“Lexa?” Clarke raised a brow at her friend, while going over to her suitcase to retrieve her sleeping clothes.

“You’re sleeping here tonight” Lexa said in what sounded half-like a statement and half-like a question.

“Where else would I be sleeping?” Clarke was now confused about Lexa’s behavior. No one had told her anything about sleeping arrangements for this year, so the Blonde had deduced they would stay in the same room as last year; was she not supposed to be here?

“I just thought…” But Lexa let her sentence go unfinished and waved her words off. “Never mind.”

Clarke frowned; Lexa was being weird – and she was _never_ weird.

“Lexa.” Clarke said, stopping her movements so the girl would know Clarke wasn’t going to drop the subject that easily.

Lexa clenched her teeth, but finally lowered her eyes.

“I was expecting you to have made sleeping arrangements with your cousins, this time” Lexa confessed what was eating at her.

“Why would I….” Clarke started, but then understanding dawned on her. “Oh.”

And it made sense really, for Lexa to have believed Clarke would want to be paired with her cousins and stay in their dorms; after all, in Hogwarts, Dani was sleeping in Gryffindor’s dorms, where Clarke was.

And it was also true that the two girls had a particular relationship; Clarke wanted to think they were friends, but were they really? They were talking to each other, sure; but they were the only two people in the whole school who were also following Beauxbâtons’ course so they didn’t really have a choice.

And Lexa was hanging out with them sometimes; but Clarke often wondered if she didn’t do it more so she could watch them rather than because she actually enjoyed spending time with them.

Their dynamic in Beauxbâtons was only comforting all those facts; Lexa was rarely seen with people, and while she tended to interact more with Clarke here in France that they did back in Hogwarts, Lexa still avoided been with people, even in a school filled with kids she knew since she was young.

“Don’t worry Lexa” Clarke murmured, trying to send a gentle smile to the Brunette, “I’m not planning of moving out so soon.”

Lexa only nodded; except Clarke was getting good at reading her, and she noticed the barely-there slump of Lexa’s shoulders, telling her Lexa was actually feeling relieved by Clarke’s words.

Clarke made quick work of her clothes and almost threw herself under her blankets, slightly shivering as the cold stoned floor was trying to freeze her naked feet. Aska, as usual, had patiently waited for Clarke to get in the bed before jumping after her, settling at her feet, his head turned towards the door; guarding her.

The lights were starting to fade out; Beauxbâtons’ way of telling the girls it was time for them to fall asleep. Clarke was feeling herself slowly closing her eyes, tired after their day of travel.

But Clarke suddenly remembered she had barely never slept alone in Beauxbâtons; Lexa had always shared her big bed.

“Lexa, you’re awake?” She whispered into the darkened room.

“Yes, Clarke” Came the answer almost instantly.

“Can’t sleep?” Clarke asked – although she already knew the answer to that question.

“Sleep is always hard for me to find” Lexa stated. Her voice was even when she said the words; like she had accepted the fact that she would never sleep well.

“My bed is still as big as last year” Clarke murmured, shifting under her covers to put herself on one-half of the mattress. “If you’re brave enough to get out from under your blankets, you’re welcome to share mine.”

Clarke then waited, hoping Lexa would accept; and as no sound could be heard and as she was starting to think Lexa was ignoring her proposition, she heard little footsteps on the floor as her bed dipped down, a second weight – or a third, counting Aska – was suddenly added.

Both girls settled again, side by side; like they had always done in Beauxbâtons. Clarke was trying to convince herself it was so Lexa could sleep better; although a part of her knew full well she actually enjoyed sleeping next to Lexa, too.

* * *

The next morning, a sleepy Clarke - with Aska - made her way towards the main room, where her friends were already waiting for her while eating breakast, as Wick and Murphy seemed engrossed in some kind of big discussion. 

"I am telling you, there's no way Bellefeuille wins" Murphy huffed, switching to english when he saw that Clarke was making their way towards them. "Clearly Papillonlisse's been more constant this season, they're ready, way more than the Greens."

"You're only saying this because Emori's keeper for Papillonlisse" Wick snorted. "But she just made the team last year, she's not ready for Diana's plays."

Clarke sat down next to them, looking at Harper who just shook her head at the boys' antics, an amused smile on her lips; probably used to it by now. 

"Well obviously Emori's a good player" John retorted, "But still, it doesn't change the fact that Papillonlisse is gonna crush you."

"They're talking Quidditch" Harper rolled her eyes, "Papillonlisse against Bellefeuille later today."

Clarke hummed, remembering that Bellefeuille was Diana's house and Papillonlisse was Jade and Timothé's. 

"Personnally, I think that Bellefeuille will win" Harper told the boys. "It's Diana Viny's last year, she'll give everything she has for her team this year."

Something stirred in Clarke's stomach at Harper's words; she had kind of forgotten about it, but it was true Diana was already 17, and therefore her last year into the French Magic School. Clarke was a little sad about the prospect; she didn't know if she would come back to Beauxbâtons next year, but it sure would be different with knowing her older cousin wasn't there. 

"Clarke!" A voice exclaimed a few meters away. 

Clarke turned around, grinning when she saw who had called her; her younger cousin and the last of the Viny siblings, Timothé. 

"Hi Tim" Clarke greeted her, reciprocating the hug he gave her once he had reached their table. "How are you?"

"My sisters told me you arrived _yesterday_ " He frowned, clearly unpleased at the prospect of having missed her arrival, "Why was I not informed of this?"

"I'm sorry" Clarke gave him a shrug, "I had written it down in my last letter to you guys, the one who read it must have forgotten to tell you."

"Clearly" He huffed again, although Clarke could see he wasn't really upset about it. 

"You're ready to lose, Viny?" John Murphy then adressed Timothé, a smug grin on his face. 

"Papillonlisse will _not_ lose, than you very much" Timothé lost no time to reply. "But I'll be sure to ask you if you're ok when we'll have won."

Clarke couldn't contain the snort that escaped her; soon followed by Harper and Wick, laughing at their friend for getting put back into his place by a first year. They knew who Timothé was, of course; it wasn't that often that a sibling already had three sisters at the schools, them all being champions at Quidditch on top of it. 

"Clarke, I meant to ask you" Timothé focused back on her cousin, "Nathalia is going to train the new recruits before the game. Would you like to join us?"

"Yeah, thanks" Clarke grinned, surprisingly happy at the prospect of being able to fly and play Quidditch a little. She had had the occasion of training, back in Hogwarts, with Raven, but it wasn't the same; she had seen it while trying to help Raven, teaching Quidditch was hard; and it was making her realise that Nathalia was actually a pretty good teacher. 

She waved goodbye at her friends, following her cousin into Beauxbatons' beautiful outside corridors. How french people built such magnificent builds, Clarke didn't know. 

* * *

"So, how's life in Hogwarts?" Timothé asked Clarke while they were walking towards the Quidditch pitch, Aska running around them, way too happy to be outside. 

"Eventful" Clarke shrugged, not really knowing how to resume what was happening in Hogwarts. 

"My sisters told me about this Chamber Of Secrets" Timothé chuckled. "What is that?"

"We don't know" Clarke said. "It sounded like a myth at first, but now it kind of looks like it exists, somewhere."

"Well, you're going to have quite a year again" Timothé sighed. "Try not to put yourself in danger this time!"

"Well, danger seems _attracted_ to me somehow" Clarke grinned at her cousin. 

"They've told me you met Elena and Dani?" Timothé then asked, discreetly looking for her cousin's reaction. He himself hadn't met them, so he only had his sisters' thoughts on the two of them. 

"Yeah, I have" Clarke smiled. "Dani's great. Elena, on the other side..."

"Well, we don't choose family, do we?" Timothé smirked at Clarke, knowing full well what Clarke meant as his sisters had talked a lot about the American twins, making the Blonde girl laugh. 

They had now reached the Quidditch pitch, where Clarke easily recognised her cousin up in the air on her broom, giving directions to a couple kids that looked like falling off their brooms at any second. 

"Students who wants to enter a Quidditch Team this year - or in the following years - can take those kind of classes, where older students can teach them. Or just for fun, too" Timothé explained, gesturing at the flying people in front of them. "Thalia is one of the best teachers; and I don't say it because she's my sister."

"She _is_ a great teacher" Clarke hummed, agreeing with her cousin. Nathalia had trained her a few times, and she had improved a lot under her training. 

"You remember Matthew, Papillonlisse's Captain and beater?" Timothé pointed his finger towards one of the flying figures. Clarke nodded, remembering his face from when Jade had introduced them last year. 

"He's helping Nathalia" Timothé explained. "And with a bit of luck, he'll take me into his team next year."

"You want to play Quidditch?" Clarke asked, surprised she had no memory of him ever mentioning joining a team. But then, it was making sense that like his sisters, he was interested in playing too. 

"Well, would I be a Viny if I didn't want to?" He almost scoffed; although Clarke could see his playful smile. 

"Yeah, that makes sense" Clarke grinned back. "What position? Chaser, I suppose, like _all_ your sisters?"

"Nope" Timothé smirked, "I want to play Seeker."

"Doing infidelities to the Chaser Club? Your sisters are not going to like it!" Clarke laughed. 

"I haven't told them yet" He smirked even more, and started walking towards what looked like a broom closet. "Come on Clarke! Let's see if you've still got some of that training my sister put you through this summer left!"

Clarke shook her head at her cousin's antics, telling herself that Timothé telling her sisters he wanted to be a Seeker instead of Chaser was going to be a fun conversation. Then, Aska came nudging her leg, and Clarke sent a sorry look to her companion as he seemed to be glaring at her already. 

"I'm sorry Aska, I'm gonna get on a broom now" Clarke apologized to him, still finding it a bit funny how he would hate every time she went flying. "Go find Lexa, ok?"

Aska barked at her, not moving, as if he was challenging Clarke's order. 

"Come on Aska, go find Lexa" Clarke told him again, lightly pushing him on the path towards the castle and scratching behind his ears. 

Aska huffed, but finally seemed to obey her. Clarke watched him walk away for a couple of seconds, making sure he was indeed doing as she had told him, and then focused back on the broom Timothé was putting into her hand. 

* * *

Lexa was sitting in the common room, going over her lectures from the next days; at Hogwarts, she hadn't enough time to study as she should have. It was Clarke and her friends' fault, really; they had kept her busy, with all their fooling-around and their habit of breaking every rules that ever existed. 

"I see you've made it this year, too" A deep voice said behind her, making her look up. 

"Hello, Iago" Lexa greeted the tall man with hair so pale it almost looked white, recognising Diana's best friend. "Yes, I'm back again, with Clarke Griffin. She's the other student from Hogwarts taking courses from Beauxbâtons, with me. Surely you remember her from last year? She's family with the Viny siblings."

"I remember" Iago murmured, now suddenly lost deep in his thoughts and looking a bit paler that he usually was. 

"Iago, don't you have a Quidditch game to be ready for?" Lexa asked him to change the subject. 

"Ah, yes" The man that Lexa had called Iago shrugged as if it didn't matter. "I am ready enough."

"This is your last year here, correct?" Lexa then asked, remembering that he was as old as Diana Viny, Clarke's oldest cousin. 

"Yes" Iago nodded. "My sister will begin Beauxbâtons next year."

Lexa gave him a swift nod of aknownledgement. Then, Lexa spotted something lightly trotting towards her; Aska. She whistled, calling the dog to her, as Iago's eyes had not moved from the animal since the second he had spotted him. 

"Aska, come here" Lexa called up to him, "What are you doing alone?"

As only answer, Aska licked her fingers, and settled on his butt, next to her legs. 

"This is Clarke's companion" Iago observed, brows frowned as if it was troubling him. 

"Yes" Lexa cautiously answered, wondering why he looked a bit concerned. 

"Why isn't he with her?" 

Lexa frowned herself; why was he acting like he knew something about it? 

"Aska would never leave Clarke's side" Lexa said, sitting a bit taler as she began to put her things into her bag so she could head to the Quidditch pitch where Clarke was probably flying around on a broom. "But when Clarke flies, he can't follow her."

"Why doesn't he wait for Clarke to set foot again on the ground, then?" Iago pushed with his questions. 

"I don't know, Iago. He usually comes find me when she does fly" Lexa quickly answered, not really wanting to continue talking about Aska and Clarke. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to the pitch."

"Well, I'm coming with" Iago said. "I need to go get ready for the game, anyways."

Lexa kept herself from rolling her eyes at the man; and the both of them - three of them, with Aska - started walking towards the Quidditch pitch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we met again with a character we've already encountered last year, chapter 13! I just thought I would remind you of that, as it will help understand who Iago is, later... ;)


	14. Quidditch in Beauxbâtons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a game of Quidditch happening in Beauxbatons.

** Chapter 14 : Quidditch Game in Beauxbâtons**

Lexa and Iago had just reached the pitch; and as Lexa had guessed, Clarke was up on a broom, doing drills with what looked like her younger cousin Timothé, under Nathalia's patient and focused eyes. A few other students were up with them; Lexa knew that every student that wanted a spot on one of the teams was going through those trainings. She had joined them a couple of times too in the previous years; just for the fun of it. 

But alas, fun wasn't something she could have anymore. 

"It kind of bums me to say it, but she's rather good" Someone said behind them. Lexa turned around, to see Diana grinning at them. She didn't need Diana to explicit who she was talking about. 

"Iago, where were you?" Diana asked him, lightly pushing him on the shoulder, "I've been looking for you all morning!" 

"Well I am right here, aren't I?" He answered, sighing to himself - although Lexa could see he was just amused by Diana's behavior. 

The Brunette had her eyes fixated on the Blonde figure flying in circles in the air, tossing the Quidditch ball around as Nathalia was instructing her to; and Lexa had to agree with Diana. Clarke _was_ good, better than most of second years were. It seems to be in her blood, to be as gracious and quick as she was. But of course it probably _was_ in her blood, since all her family seemed to have played Quidditch at some point. 

Lexa could see it in Clarke's cousins' eyes, too; the pride they were feeling as they were watching Clarke fly around, the way that Nathalia couldn't keep herself from smiling just a little bit everytime Clarke was doing something right. The way that Diana was wearing this tiny smile, her bottom lip rising just enough to let everyone know she was proud of the Blonde. And Lexa was feeling a little bit proud, too. 

"I didn't know she could fly _that_ well" Iago stated after a while, looking impressed himself. 

"Nathalia taught her during summer" Diana chuckled with a little roll of her eyes, "Of course she can fly. And besides, she's a Griffin; it's in her blood anyways."

"So you've told me" Iago hummed, not looking at her. A shadow passed in Diana's eyes; but Lexa didn't have time to analyse it, as Jade Viny and Matthew, Papillonlisse's captain, were walking towards them. They seemed far deep into a heavy discussion where they looked they disagreed with each other. Matthew still had his broom on his hand, just having come off it after helping Nathalia with the recruits. 

"I am telling you, she could play _this year_ " Jade was pressing on, "you've seen it yourself, she's ready!"

"It's too soon, Jade" Matthew was shaking his head no, "Your sisters won't agree to it."

They were only a few feet away now, quickly closing off the distance, so the group had been able to hear some of their spoken words. 

"Her sisters won't agree to what?" Diana asked Mathew with a grin, knowing full well that Jade was going to grumble about her older sister putting her nose where it didn't belong. 

Matthew looked over to Jade for a couple of seconds, as if he was deciding on whether to tell her or not; but figuring out it would do more damage to lie to Diana, he answered her. 

"Jade thinks Clarke is ready to play Quidditch this year" Matthew told them. 

"And Matthew thinks it's too soon, but it's _not"_ Jade glared at him, and looking like she was keeping herself from rolling her eyes at the young man. 

"Why would it be too soon?" Iago asked, shrugging his shoulders and looking up at Clarke, "She is obviously good enough at it."

"No offense but this is a family matter Iago, we don't need your advice" Diana stopped him, then turning towards her sister to tell her a piece of her mind on the subject. 

While the two Viny girls seemed to be arguing about whether to let Clarke play Quidditch or not - Matthew interfering from time to time - Lexa threw a quick glance at Iago, who looked a bit upset by Diana's words to him. 

"A family matter. Right" He mumbled, before turning his heels over and walking back towards the castle. Lexa frowned; why did he seemed upset to not be included in family discussions? He was not part of the Viny's family, and although he was a very good friend of Diana's, he shouldn't have reacted like that. 

"Lexa" Diana then said, taking the Brunette out of her own head. "What do you think?"

"About what?" Lexa frowned, not having payed attention to what they had been currently talking about. 

"About Clarke playing Quidditch this year" Diana repeated the question. 

"I think you should ask Clarke herself" Lexa shrugged. 

Diana frowned; not having expected the girl to say that. 

"You were the one to tell me that we couldn't hide her forever" Lexa said to the oldest Viny child. "And Clarke will do what she wants; regardless of what you tell her to do or _not_ do."

Jade chuckled at her words; Lexa was right. Clarke was her own person, and if she wanted to play Quidditch, no one would be able to take her mind off it. 

* * *

Clarke was exhausted; she had been playing Quidditch for almost two hours now, under Nathalia and Matthew's advices, both great players into the French Magic School. Her toes were beginning to feel numb a bit, and she couldn't feel the tip of her nose. Another girl from the training session - Clarke couldn't remember her name - didn't look too good either; and honestly, all of them seemed ready to call it a day and go back inside. 

"Alright, we're done for the day!" Nathalia finally announced as the new recruits all sighed in relief, immediately heading towards the ground. 

Clarke saw Nathalia coming her way, so she waited on her broom a few couple seconds more for her cousin to reach her. 

"Good job today, Clarke" Nathalia smiled at her. "You haven't forgotten what I taught you during the summer."

"You would have added three more hours of torture if I had" Clarke retorted, narrowing her eyes at her cousin - although Nathalia knew she was only joking. 

"Yeah well, that's the only way to learn" Nathalia wickedly grinned at her. 

"Ready to go, you two? My butt is frozen!" A voice shouted at them from a couple meters away, as Timothé was waving his arms at them. 

"And you did _very_ poorly today!" Nathalia shouted back, "I'm _ashamed_ that we are related!"

Timothé only stuck his tongue at his sister; something he shouldn't have done apparently, as Nathalia immediately started chasing him around on her broom, shouting empty threats at him. 

Clakre chuckled at their antics, and flew towards the ground. Getting off her broom, she noticed that Diana, Jade, Matthew and Lexa were already waiting for them. Aska almost jumped at her the minute her feet had touched the ground. 

"I know, I don't like being away from you either" Clarke grinned at her dog, scratching him behind his ears as he was almost sitting on her feet to be as close to her as he could. 

"Hey, Clarke" Diana smiled at her cousin, briefly hugging her. "You were great, up there."

"Well she better be" Nathalia retorted, "I've taught her myself."

"Hey, you never say that for me!" Timothé protested, playfully hitting her on the shoulder, "And I'm your _brother_ !"

"Well you're not Clarke, Tim" Jade joked, grinning at him. 

Timothé looked midly offended by his sister's comment as the rest of them started laughing. 

"I'll meet you in the stands, alright?" Nathalia told Clarke, "I have to get changed before these guys start their match" She gestured to Diana, Matthew and Jade. 

"Well Clarke and I probably need a quick shower too, anyways" Timothé answered. "See you later!"

And the boy walked back towards the castle, his sister in toe. Diana and Jade gave a wink to Clarke each, and were out of sight in a minute, leaving Lexa and Clarke alone. In silence, they made their way back to their dorm - Clarke not questioning why Lexa was following her, having thought she would have something better to do -. 

* * *

Once they had reached their dorms, Clarke almost jumped into the shower, desperate to feel her toes return to life. Sighing under the stream of hot water, Clarke let her mind wander. She heard quiet paddles on the floor, and watched through the shower's glassy door how Aska had pushed his way into the bathroom, then laying down on the floor, content to just be in the same room as Clarke was. 

Clarke still had trouble figuring out what was Aska's deal, and the words the seller had told her were always turning in her head. _Waiting to be chosen._ What could Aska be, if he wasn't an ordinary dog? What Aska looked like, other than a muggle-dog with bright yellow eyes? 

Clarke then suddenly wondered if Hermione didn't know a thing or two about it; after all, the girl had said it herself, she had read every book that had ever been written. Well, it's wasn't true, but still; Hermione had gone through loads of books already; surely a couple of them must have had words on what Aska could be. The simple fact that Aska had seemed to know she was in danger, last year with Harry and Quirrell and You-Know-Who was enough for Clarke to keep wondering what was Aska hiding. 

She couldn't describe it; she wouldn't know what words to use, but she felt a strong connection to him; almost as if he had always been part of her life. Which wasn't true, as she only had him since last year. But there was a weird feeling, down in the pit of her stomach; something she couldn't pinpoint yet. But there _were_ days where Clarke was feeling like the answer wasn't that far away from her reach... 

Aska quietly barking took her out of her thoughts; she chuckled, rolling her eyes at her dog who probably thought she was taking too much time in the shower for his liking. The Blonde didn't try to push her luck - after all, Aska had already been patient today, leaving Clarke's side while she was on her broom - and Clarke didn't want to upset her friend any more. 

Wrapped in her towel, Clarke made her way to the bedroom she shared with Lexa, rumbling through her suitcase to find suitable clothes to wear to the Quidditch game, so she wouldn't freeze out for the second time today. 

"They are right, you know." Lexa stated. 

"What?" Clarke asked, putting her socks on. 

"Your cousins. And Matthew" Lexa repeated in a small voice. "They think you're good at Quidditch. Great, even."

Clarke raised a brow at Lexa, not really knowing where she was going with this. 

"And I do think you can handle yourself on a broom" Lexa continued, not wanting Clarke to doubt that she was sharing her cousins' opinions on her Quidditch skills. 

"Are you now going to tell me you think it's a bad idea and that I can't play Quidditch?" Clarke asked, putting her warm Beauxbâtons sweater, already rolling her eyes at what she thought the Brunette was going to say. 

"No."

"No?" Stopped her movements, whipping her head towards Lexa. 

"No" Lexa repeated. "I think you should play. If you wanted to. I think you should play."

"Who are you and what have you done to Lexa Woods?" Clarke grinned at her friend, throwing her towel onto the Brunette's face and managing to hit her face in the process. 

A hint of a smile made its way to Lexa's lips.

* * *

They were now in the stands, waiting for the game to begin. Next to Clarke, Nathalia was impatiently looking to the locker's room entry, where the players were to get out from at any moment now. 

"Calm down, Nathalia" Timothé rolled his eyes at his sister, "This isn't the Quidditch World Cup."

"You don't understand" Nathalia retorted, "We play the winner of this match, after the holidays. If Papillonlisse wins, then we'll win this year's Cup, no doubts."

"Matthew's been training them hard" Wick said, standing behind them. "Jade has made a lot of progress on her technique, too. They have a real chance to win."

"And Bellefeuille wins the game?" Clarke wondered. 

"Then we're screwed" Nathalia sighed. "We'll never win against Bellefeuille, they're too good this year. Diana is one of Beauxbâtons' greatest players since at least two hundred years, and it's her last chance to win the cup; she'll give everything she has into it."

"Aren't you a better player than her?" Lexa then talked - surprising Clarke in the process. 

"I am better than she was at my age, yes" Nathalia nodded, a hint of pride coloring her cheeks, "But she's older, with more experience. She's still better than me."

"Is there _anything at all_ that Diana is bad at?" Clarke sighed, rolling her eyes at the thought of her cousin being perfect. 

"If there is, then we haven't find it yet" Timothé grumbled as Nathalia only laughed. 

The players were now coming out, and were starting to fly circles into the arena, probably warming up. Lexa then gently nudged Clarke, pointing with her chin towards one of the players up in the air. 

"Did you meet Iago yet?" Lexa asked her in a low voice so their conversation wouldn't be heard by the rest of Clarke's friends and family. 

"I don't think so" Clarke shrugged, trying to remember if his silhouette seemed familiar. "Who is he?"

"Diana's best friend" Lexa answered. "Or, I think."

"You _think_?" Clarke raised her brows. 

"Well, they used to be really close" Lexa explained. "When I was younger, they were attached to the hip, really. But something seemed to have changed, somehow."

Clarke nodded; Lexa might not be very far from the truth. Indeed, Clarke had never heard about Iago; and if he was as close to Diana as Clarke was with Raven and Octavia, it was weird that she had never met him before, right? And now that she was thinking about it, she had never seen the man with Diana either, each time she had come to the school. 

"He seemed interested in you" Lexa then said. 

"Interested in me?" Clarke frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Asking questions. About Aska, too. Wondering why he had left your side." Lexa shrugged. 

"Aska only leaves my side when I'm on a broom" Clarke said. "And he comes to you."

"Each time, he comes to me" Lexa repeated, then turning to Clarke, a frown on her face. "Why is that?"

"Well, I tell him to come find you" Clarke answered with a shrug of her shoulders as if it had been obvious from the start. 

Lexa frowned even more, looking at Clarke like she had grown two heads in the last minute. 

"What?" Clarke chuckled. 

"Why me?" Lexa asked, "I mean, I am flattered that you trust me enough, but why me? He could go with your cousins. They are your family."

"For some reasons that I can't explain, Aska actually seems to like you" Clarke chuckled again. "Out of every people, except from me, you're the only one he approaches. So, I figured he would be most comfortable with you" Clarke told her. "And you're always around, anyways. Howgarts, Beauxbatons... It's less complicated."

Lexa nodded, accepting the explanation; and although Clarke could see it was still troubling her a bit, the Blonde chose not to push it and focused back on the game that was about to start. 

The speakers started talking -although in French, so Clarke had Lexa or her cousins translate what they were saying - and the game was up, players from both teams suddenly flying all around the arena, each of them now very focused on their role. Now that Clarke knew Quidditch's rules better and that she could actually play, she understood better what the players were doing; and it was making the game way more interesting that the first ones she had been to. It was also something else to see other teams compete, teams that weren't of her own school and without any stakes at hand. 

Well, not for Clarke anyways. 

"Oh come Jade" Nathalia suddenly groaned, her grip tight on the seat in front of her, "You can play better than that!!"

Clarke chuckled at her cousin's antics, as Timothé was only shaking his head at his older sister, amused by the way she was so clearly invested in the game. Despite what Nathalia was apparently thinking, Jade was a very good player; well, Clarke had to admit that all Vinys seemed to somehow be better at Quidditch than most of the other players. But still, Jade was really good, and her flying was flawless; she looked so elegant up there, her robe lightly floating around her and following her every move. It was almost like watching her dance, in a way; very gracious, as if she wasn't spending any energy on it, doing loops, turning over the other players, catching balls in the most prettiest ways... 

But it was _nothing_ compared to seeing Diana Viny, the older sister, up in the air. Where Jade looked like a ballerina performing her choreography, Diana was a tornado spinning up in every corner of the pitch, being everywhere at once. Diana was not _using_ the air to move around; she _was_ the air, bending it and creating it at will so she could go wherever her eyes were leading her to. Clarke couldn't tear her eyes from her silhouette, dressed in Bellefeuille's colors, her Blonde hair braided behind her head. Clarke gasped as Diana intercepted the ball between two Papillonlisse players, avoiding a Bludger at the same time and throwing the ball hard in direction of the circle. 

And then every student was shouting their lungs out; Diana had scored, as Papillonlisse's keeper, Emori, hadn't been fast enough to catch the ball in time. 

"Yes Diana!" Timothé screamed, throwing his fist in the air and proceeding to clap hard for her sister. 

Clarke laughed and clapped too, now very taken into the game, happy for her cousin; she could see Diana was proud of herself, standing still on her broom for a couple of seconds, looking their way. Then, she winked, and she was flying back to her teammates, who all high-fived her when she flew by. 

After the end of the quick celebration, the game was on again, and Diana was back to being focused once more. Then Matthew, Papillonlisse's captain and beater, threw his bat at some Bludger who was headed to Jade's head, and she threw him a thankful look. 

"That was a close one" Nathalia hummed, sighing with relief to see that her sister hadn't been hit. 

"Do players get hit a lot?" Clarke wondered. 

"If they have good beaters, they don't" Nathalia shrugged, "But well they can't be everywhere."

"Thalia has been hit once" Timothé said with a smirk, "And wailed about the bump on her forehead for a week straight."

"I did _not_ !" Nathalia grumbled, hitting her brother on the shoulder. Clarke laughed at the angry look on her cousin's face; and even on Lexa's face, a smile found its way. 

* * *

The match ended on Bellefeuille winning - much to Nathalia's despair - as their seeker managed to catch the Snitch and two balls thrown into the circles. Papillonlisse had played well too, Jade even managing to score some points too; but not enough for the unforgiving well-oiled machine that was Bellefeuille's team. 

"They are more older, Nathalia" Timothé gently told her sister, "It's almost normal for them to win. Chances will be more equal next year, with Diana and Raphaël gone."

Clarke's attention perked up; she had not heard that name before. "Who's Raphaël?"

"He's one of Bellefeuille's beater" Lexa explained, pointing to some student on the pitch. "I think he's Diana's age."

"Yup" Timothé grinned with a hint of mischief in his eyes, "And they get along quite fine, if you ask me. Outch!" Timothé groaned. 

Nathalia had just hit her brother behind the head, looking at him with narrowed eyes. 

"This is none of your business" Nathalia scoffed, "Leave her alone."

"What, you're jealous...?" Timothé teased her, and busted in laughter when Nathalia tried to hit him a second time. 

Clarke shook her head at her cousins, something then slowing starting to tug at her chest. Her eyes crossed Lexa's; and Clarke knew Lexa was feeling too. The closeness these siblings had with each other; with people their own blood. That wasn't something Lexa and Clarke had, while growing up. Although Clarke knew she was much luckier than Lexa, because at least she had had Raven and Octavia, who were almost as sisters to her. 

"Come on, we're meeting the sisters in the common room" A voice said behind them. 

They turned around; Iago was standing behind them, his eyes curious and set on Clarke, as if there was no one else around than the Blonde. 

"Iago de Beaufort" He finally said after a while, bending his head just so slightly and moving his hand forward to shake Clarke's. "I am a student from Ombrelune's house. Friend of Diana."

"I'm Clarke" Clarke shook his hand back. "I'm..."

"The Vinys' cousin" He finished her sentence before she could. "I've heard about you."

"Hi Iago" Nathalia greeted him, "You're ready to deal with a gloating Diana?"

Clarke chuckled; Diana was not the gloating type. 

"I wish I did not have to see this" Iago replied, sighing - although his facial expression looked more playful than serious.

They all walked towards the main room, where Bellefeuille students were already there, all with happy smiles on their faces, sharing their joy at having won the game. Diana was sat down at one of the table, the rest of her teammates all around her, congratulating themselves and talking about their incredible moves and catches and tactics. A few of Papillonlisse Quidditch's team's members were there too, accepting their defeat and discussing the game to know what they could have changed to reverse the outcome. Clarke recognised Matthew, Papillonlisse's Captain and Artigas, one of the beaters for Papillonlisse, whom she had met last year and who were both friends to Jade. Emori was there too, John Murphy by her side - which met that Wick and Harper were probably not so far away. 

"Clarke!" Emori called her, spotting her in the flow of students. 

Clarke grinned, parting from the group to go meet her. 

"Great game Emori" Clarke congratulated her, "You've made a lot of progress since last year!"

"Yeah well, not enough apparently" The girl sighed, "They scored two times. And that throw by Diana? There was _nothing_ I could do."

"It's ok" Clarke smiled nonetheless and giving her friend a pat on the shoulder, "You'll be even better the next time."

"Thanks, Clarke" Emori gently smiled, thankful for her supportive British friend. 

"Clarke, you're there!" Another voice exclaimed behind her, "You've seen this game? We've won!"

Emori rolled her eyes at Wick, who had just spoken, as Harper was not-so discreetly elbowing him in the side to make him shut up. 

"I mean, you were great Emori, really you were" Wick hurried to say, "But you know... Diana Viny is probably the best player this school has seen in over two centuries."

Emori and Harper seemed to ponder whether they were going to hit him again; but then, Emori laughed. 

"Thanks, Wick" Emori grinned at him, "I should then take the fact that she _only_ scored twice, as a compliment."

Wick frowned as it was not what he had been wanting to say; but the rest of them laughed at his confused face, and he dropped the subject, laughing with them. 

* * *

"Clarke, what did you think of the game?" Jade asked over dinner. 

They were all sitting down together in the common room - well, Lexa had disappeared since Clarke had started to talk with Emori earlier in the afternoon, but the Blonde wasn't worried about her. It was a weird group they were now forming; all of Clarke's friends were there, of course, but on top of that, the four Vinys were sitting down with them - something that had _never_ happened - and some of their own friends had now joined them too. Even though Beauxbatons was probably more mixed in the way students interacted between houses than Hogwarts, so much diversity was unheard of. 

"That was a great game for sure" Clarke answered. 

"How are games at Hogwarts?" Murphy then asked, curious about whether Quidditch was as popular elsewhere as it was in Beauxbatons. 

"Intense" Clarke tried to think about it. "The first one I saw, my friend's broom got enchanted. On his second, a bludger was enchanted, and..."

"We've heard enough" Diana cut her, "It's a good thing that you don't play Quidditch in Hogwarts, then."

"Why are things so odd at Hogwarts anyways?" Harper chuckled, "Something is always happening. Being in Beauxbatons seems like holidays next to it."

"Well, it kind of is, for me" Clarke shrugged with a smile; it was true that being in Beauxbatons felt like holidays, even if she had to take classes and do homework. 

* * *

The next couple of days passed by in a blur for Clarke; she went to classes, studied her ass off and struggled to manage doing both Hogwarts' and Beauxbâtons' homeworks. But as always, Lexa stayed with her the entire time, helping each other when they were stuck on assignements. Clarke's Beauxbâtons' friends helped too; and despite the heavy amount of work they had to do, they actually managed to have a very good time for the last days of the year. 

And then it was time to go back home to the Meadow for Christmas; Clarke was finishing to pack her bags, as Aska was quietly watching her. They were supposed to leave in a couple of hours, after breakfast, and Clarke was excited.

Clarke looked to the other side of the room, where Lexa was, too, packing her bags; Clarke suddenly realised that she had no idea where Lexa was going for Christmas, as she had always assumed she was staying at the school. 

Clarke then spotted one of Lexa's sweater into her bed, grabbed it and gently threw it onto the Brunette's bed; although Lexa had almost never slept into her bed since they had arrived. 

"This is yours, I think" Clarke said, as Lexa was taking the clothes and inspecting it, nodding when she recognised it as her own. 

"Thank you" The Brunette murmured, and putting the sweater into her suitcase. 

"Lexa, can I ask you something?" Clarke stopped moving and sat down on her bed, facing Lexa. 

Lexa didn't answer but simply nodded while trying to decide which books she was going to bring to wherever she was going. 

"Where are you going for Christmas?" Clarke then gently asked, "I kind of thought you were staying here, but then I saw you packing and I just thought you were spending all your time in Beauxbâtons when you weren't in Hogwarts.." Clarke trailed off. 

Lexa stopped moving too, looking at Clarke without saying anything for a couple of seconds, before resuming her packing. 

"I still have a couple of family members left" Lexa murmured. "And Anya, and Tris. We have a family mention where we can go. But I'd rather stay in Beauxbâtons."

Although Clarke was dying to know why Lexa would rather stay at the school rather than going home to her family, she only nodded, dropping the matter as she was feeling like Lexa didn't really want to talk about it. 

Silence took over the room once again as the girls finished packing their things. 

* * *

After closing her suitcase, Clarke got to the main room to grab a quick breakfast before it was time to go. Her friends were already there, laughing with each other. The Blonde could see a couple of suitcases next to them, guessing that some of them were going home for Christmas too. 

"Hi Clarke" Harper smiled at her, "Are you all packed?"

"Yeah" Clarke smiled back, "I'm leaving in an hour."

"Are you excited?" Wick wiggled his brows at her, "Rumors say Christmas at the Vinys' is always super fun."

"And how would you know something like that?" Clarke raised her brows at him. 

"The Viny girls have a lot of friends" It was Emori that answered, "They often invite friends over for Christmas. Words turn around."

"Iago de Beaufort is almost always invited, too" Murphy gestured to someone a couple tables behind them. 

Discreetly, Clarke turned her head around, looking at the young man that Lexa had described by being one of Diana's closest friends. There was something so mysterious about him; the piercing blue eyes he had, mixed with the facial scar running from his eyebrow to the middle of his cheek and the almost-white looking hair was making him look older than he actually was. 

"They didn't tell me anything about him coming with us" Clarke stated. 

"Well, maybe he's not coming this year" Harper hummed. "He used to always be joined hip-to-hip with Diana. I actually thought they were dating, at some point. But they grew older, and grew distant as well, I guess."

Clarke nodded, finding it weird that Diana could have let anyone grow distant from her if she cared about them. Diana could give everything to the people she loved and cared about, Clarke knew that much. So, what had happened between them? 

"So, Clarke" Emori got her out of her thoughts, "We have something for you." The girl got something out from under the table, and put it in front of Clarke. 

It was a wrapped package; a Christmas gift. 

"What is that?" Clarke murmured, gently putting her fingers on the wrapped paper. 

"Your Christmas gift, of course" Wick playfully huffed as if Clarke was stupid. 

"But you can't open it until it's time for presents!" Harper quickly said. "You will put it under the Christmas tree, and open it with all your other gifts."

Clarke only smiled at them, fearing that she was going to cry if she tried to speak to express her gratitude to people she felt cared about her way much more than they should. They saw it right through her, and they smiled back. 


	15. Christmas with the Vinys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas time and Clarke gets to spend it with her cousins. In Hogwarts, the polyjuice is finally ready. Iago is definitely hiding something; but someone is always hiding something those days... Right?

** Chapter 15 : Christmas with the Vinys**

Clarke had not even gone through the front door of the Vinys' homestead that her aunt Louison - her father's cousin - was already engulfing her in a hug. 

"Clarke, you're there!" The grown woman exclaimed. 

"Yes, mother, your children have arrived as well" Nathalia rolled her eyes, trailing her suitcase behind her, "Although I see it doesn't move you as such."

"Nonsense" Louison playfully shook her head at her daughter, "I'm glad you're all here."

Each of the four children took turn hugging their mother as she was already telling them not to put their bags into the living-room. Clarke stopped for a couple of seconds, what it must be feeling like for Louison and Andrew, to have four children during the summer and holidays, and not a single one the rest of the year. Surely they felt like the house was too big for only the two of them, sometimes. 

"Timothé!" Louison said, "Leave the fridge alone! Oh come on Jade, bring your bags upstairs!"

Clarke chuckled at their family antics. Feeling a tug on her shoulder, the blonde looked up; Louison was looking at her with a gentle smile. 

"Are you ok rooming with Nathalia, like last summer?" Her aunt asked, "We've started to build a little house to serve as dormitories, but it's not yet ready and..."

"I'm fine with staying with Nathalia again" Clarke cut her off, "Besides, I think she kind of likes having me in her room." Clarke grinned. 

"Thalia is very fond of you, yes" Louison hummed, "But she'll never admit it."

"Yeah" Clarke chuckled, before smiling once more at her aunt and grabbing her bag to out it in Nathalia's room. 

If you weren't staying with Nathalia, you don't know who your roommate could be anyways; Iago is supposed to arrive tomorrow to spend the holidays with the family too, and you expect he'll be staying with Diana anyways. 

Upstairs, Nathalia was already unpacking and putting her clothes into her drawers, throwing a couple of them onto a pile in the middle of the room; probably dirty laundry. 

Having not heard Clarke walk up the stairs, Nathalia jumped a little when the Blonde entered the room. 

"Oh, Clarke" She said, "You're staying with me, then?"

"Yeah" Clarke gently grinned, "If that's ok."

"Yes of course" Nathalia quickly nodded, "I just... I thought you were going to go with Diana this time. Since they bought a double bed for her."

"I'm fine with staying with you again" Clarke shrugged, trying to act like it was no big deal - when clearly it seemed to matter to Nathalia whether she was staying in her room or not. 

Clarke liked the four of them; it was true that Diana was a bit extra-special for Clarke, but only because she was older and was kind of acting like a role model- something Clarke had nefver had, growing up. Timothé was Clarke's age almost, so they were at the same page in terms of maturity and everything that could be linked to someone's age; Jade was a bubbly person, always full of optimism, and it was always refreshing. With Nathalia, on the other hand, it was always complicated to know what she was thinking; she could appear very cold, from time to time, reserved, looking at you from a few feet away. 

"I heard Iago was to join us tomorrow" Clarke started, trying to sound as if she wasn't snooping for informations. 

"Yes" Nathalia hummed, "He usually comes to spend the holidays with us."

"Doesn't he have any family?" Clarke asked, only being curious about why he would choose to spend the holidays with the Viny family instead of his own. 

"He has, actually" Nathalia answered, "He has a little sister. Lilia. I think she's a year younger than Timothé, if I remember well". 

"No parents?"

"He has his father" Nathalia answered without looking at her, busy sorting out through her books. "His own mother died, actually. During the war against you-know-who. Lilia and he don't share the same mother."

Clarke nodded, sensing that it was not her place to ask for more information than her cousin had already gave her; although she was still very curious about why he would choose to come celebrate Christmas with the Vinys and not stay with his sister. 

"Something happened, between him and Diana" Nathalia suddenly said out of nowhere. "They were great friends. Before. But I don't know. Something happened... and suddenly they weren't that close anymore."

"It seems like they were friends forever" Clarke hummed, putting her own suitcase onto the bed she would be sleeping in while at the meadow. 

Nathalia stopped, turning over to her cousin, a brow raised at her in a silent question. 

"I mean, everyone in Beauxbâtons talk about them being best friends" Clarke added, "But Diana never mentioned his name once, before I met him."

"Yeah well, like I said, something happened" Nathalia shrugged. "I don't know more about this than you do; it just turned into a taboo subject, one day to another, and we didn't ask about it."

Clarke nodded, and chose not to ask any more questions about this. If Diana had wanted to talk about it with Clarke, she would have do so already. 

* * *

The next morning was peaceful at the meadow; Nathalia had woken Clarke and Timothé up early so they could train for Quidditch a bit before breakfast. The grass had a bit of frost on it, testifying of the low temperatures usually happening in winter; but Clarke wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world. 

After a solid hour and a half spent outside flying, reviewing what seemed like hundreds of different game tactics, Nathalia finally called it a day, and they were soon all gathered into the kitchen, impatiently waiting for Louison to make her famous maple syrup pancakes. Which was not happening that often, Clarke later learned; The Vinys were french, after all, and as such they were more into cereals with milk, bread with jam and croissants. But, for Clarke and because Andrew the Vinys' father, was British, they all decided having an english breakfast with toast and pancakes and bacon was needed from time to time. He had arrived earlier in the morning, waving at Clarke and his children from the ground, and gotten into the house to be greeted by the rest of the family which wasn't busy training for Quidditch. 

Clarke still didn't know quite what to think about Andrew Viny; he seemed nice and looked like a good father, but she had not interacted with him enough to have a precise opinion on the man. In the kitchen, Louison was now expertedly flipping out pancakes, while Diana was helping cook the bacon. Diana, whom looked just a little-less joyful than usual. Clarke sat next to Jade, discreetly nodding towards Diana. 

"Is she ok?" Clarke asked her cousin, her voice kept low. 

"She always is" Jade shrugged. "But it's true she's been preoccupied, lately."

Clarke raised her brows at her cousin; Diana was _always_ preoccupied for everyone's safety. 

"Alright" Jade playfully rolled her eyes, "It's true she's always preoccupied. But she does look more burdened than usual."

Clarke absentedly nodded; her cousin did seem concerned with something, as her smile wasn't reaching her ears as usual and her eyes looked a bit empty. The family ate their breakfast, chatting about nothing and everything. Then, everyone went to get ready for the day, taking turns into the couple showers of the house - which almost caused a diplomatic incident when Nathalia got her turn taken up by her brother. 

* * *

"Clarke, would you come with me for a second?" Andrew Viny then suddenly adressed her, nodding towards what looked like a door leading outside, which Clarke hadn't noticed until now. The Blonde nodded and followed her uncle into what looked like a garage - with no car. 

"I was looking into my boxes for something when I found this" Andrew said, reaching for something into one of the boxes and handing it to Clarke, his eyes on her, waiting for her reaction. 

Clarke precautiously took the wooden frame he was giving her, and turned it around to see what it was. Her eyes fell on the picture; and she gasped. 

"Where did you get this?" Clarke murmured, gently running her fingers on the silhouettes behind the thin glass. There was a bunch of people she could recognize; her father, no less, her pregnant mother too, and other adults that looked a bit familiar - although she couldn't put names on them. 

"It's a picture we took the spring before... You know" Andrew trailed off, referring to the summer before the last battles and Voldemort being defeated. "That's me, there, with all the hair". 

Clarke chuckled; her uncle had indeed lost a couple of hair between then and now. "Is that Nathalia?" Clarke pointed to the serious-looking girl who was holding Andrew's hand. 

"Yeah, it is" He smiled back. "That's your aunt Louison" Andrew showed her then, pointing at a smiling figure which was holding a tiny infant into her arms - probably Jade - with another older girl attached to her leg; Clarke exhaled, surprised at how much a young Louison looked like Diana now. "And that is Marcus Griffin, Danielle and Elena's father. Diana told me you have met them?"

"Yes" Clarke confirmed, looking at the couple which was each carrying a buddle of clothes into their arms, and wondered why the face of the woman next to Marcus wasn't appearing on the picture. "They study in Hogwarts this year. I didn't know about them until I figured it out."

"Ah, we should probably have talked to you about them last summer when you visited" Andrew sighed. "But we didn't know if we would be able to reach out to them, and we didn't want to get your hopes up."

" _We_?" Clarke questionned. 

"Your aunt and I" Andrew answered. "Your mother, of course. And Diana."

"Mom knows about Dani and Elena?" Clarke frowned. 

"Yes" Andrew nodded, choosing not to lie to her niece. "The Griffin Family Tree is quite enormous, I must tell you. They are wizards and witches we haven't heard about in years... Some branches of the family tree we don't know if they're instinct or not. Some students at Hogwarts may even be relatives, actually" He added. "Without us knowing it."

Clarke nodded, understanding that it was complicated; and maybe she was not ready to discover every secret yet. 

"Louison once told me that our family was a very old one" Clarke told her uncle. "That we had made a few enemies, throughout the years. Is it still true?"

"It is" Andrew Viny hummed, sitting down on one of the old stools into the garage. "That is why we are always cautious about meeting some of them, or introducing them to you" Andrew explained.

"That is why my parents hid you from me" Clarke breathed out. "Hid that I was a witch."

Andrew was quiet for a couple of seconds. 

"I need to be truthful with you, Clarke" He started, "You are still very young; but it _will_ come a time when you will have to bear big responsabilities, no matter how hard the others try to protect you from it, and lying to you about it and telling you everything's fine is a waste of time."

Clarke frowned, half-curious and half-worried by his uncle's words. 

"There are reasons why you are kept in the dark" He said again, "And you will know about it, the full story, soon enough. In the meantime, you _must_ learn everything that you can while you are _safe_ , be as good as a witch as you can be" Andrew told her. "So you can be ready."

"Ready for what?" Clarke murmured. 

"You know for what, Clarke" Andrew gently smiled at her. "You-know-who _will_ come back at some point. We have fought him once before; it will be your turn soon."

Clarke lowered her eyes to the picture her uncle had given her; and then frowned, looking at one of the women. 

"Who is this?" Clarke asked, "She's wearing Elena's amber necklace."

"That is your aunt Claire" Andrew smiled. "She was Marcus's youngest sister. She really was... Something" He said with a distant look on his eyes, which made Clarke suspect Claire wasn't around anymore. "After her death, the necklace found its new owner in Elena, Marcus' oldest twin". 

Clarke nodded, suddenly remembering Dani telling her Elena was only wearing the necklace because it belonged to her father's deceased sister. 

"So the necklaces find their owners like wands do" Clarke repeated, wanting to confirm some theories. "How many necklaces are there?"

"I don't know for sure" Andrew truthfully said. "There's Elena's, the amber stone. Diana's quartz' stone, yours of course, the ruby" Andrew listed them, "That makes three of them. I know of another one, a bue sapphire crystal. And I think there might be a fifth one."

"Why do you think that?" Clarke frowned, suddenly very curious. 

Andrew opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off as Timothé was opening the garage's door and putting his head through it. 

"Clarke, here you are!" He exclaimed, "Come on, we need your help with something!"

Clarke looked at her uncle, a bit disappointed that their chat was over. But he smiled at her, throwing a little wink her way; and she knew he would be there, whenever she would need to talk about anything. 

"You can keep the picture" He smiled at her again, encouraging her to go on. She thanked him, and followed her cousin back into the house. 

* * *

"So, have you been a nice kid this year?" Jade asked Clarke with a half-smirk on her face. 

Clarke frowned, not understanding the question; but her aunt came to the rescue. 

"One thing is certain; if you keep making fun of your cousin Jade, Santa will definitely _not_ come for you" Louison playfully reprimanded her daughter, who roller her eyes back at her mom. 

"I don't know about you guys, but I've been a real angel" Timothé hummed, plopping down on the couch next to his mother, trying to look as innocent as he could. 

"Oh really?" Nathalia narrowed her eyes at her little brother, "Because rumors went around saying that you, and your 1st years friends, had taken the..."

but Nathalia didn't have time to finish her sentence as Timothé had gotten up from the couch and rushed to his sister, putting his hand on her face to keep her from talking. 

"Alright Thalia thank you we don't need to know more about that" Timothé hushed her. 

"I think we _do_ need to know, actually" Diana smirked at him, settling on a armchair, "Clarke, wouldn't you like to know?"

Clarke paused for a couple of seconds; she had no idea about what they were talking about - and it seemed that all three girls were on the same page about whatever _this_ was - and that Timothé was trying to keep them from telling their mother. 

"Leave him alone, you three" Louison faked an annoyed smile at her daughters while winking at Clarke, silently telling her it was just the lightful usual banter between the siblings. 

Then, the doorbell rang, and Diana got up to open the door. Aska raised his head up from his paws, sniffed the air, and went back to sleeping; apparently not worried about the stranger knocking on the door. Clarke wondered who it could be; her question was answered a couple seconds later when Iago entered the living-room, nodding at them. 

"Hello Iago" Louison greeted him with a gentle smile, "We were wondering if you were coming, this year."

"There's been some complications" Iago nodded, "But I'm here. If that's ok."

"Of course, Son" Andrew Viny gave him a light pat on his shoulders, "Get your bags upstairs and join me in the garage. We have a lot to talk about."

Clarke threw an interrogative look at Jade, sitting next to her, not really understanding why Andrew would call Iago _son._

"Iago is almost family" Jade whispered to her. "He's been around since Diana was in age of having friends."

Clarke hummed as a thank you to her cousin for answering her question. Something was still odd, though; Diana looked troubled, almost-agitated. And that was a state Clarke had never seen her cousin in once, since they had met. Diana, usually so calm and strong and reliable. 

Then, Timothé suggested a board game, and Clarke forgot to ask more into it. 

* * *

Night came, and after a quick walk outside so Aska wasn't bored, The Vinys and their guests ate souper while telling jokes and answering every question Andrew and Louison had about their past semester. 

Diana told them all about her plan to become an Auror - which was a highly trained law enforcement official working for the governement, with great skills in offensive magic. It almost caused a diplomatic conflict yet again, as Andrew and Louison were hearing this for the first time, too. 

"Diana, we have a say in this" His father told her. "You've never expressed any wish to become an Auror before. Why now?"

"You know why now, Dad" Diana huffed, putting her fork back onto the table, suddenly not hungry anymore. 

"But isn't it true that they only take a few candidates, and not every year?" Timothé asked. 

"Not helping, Tim" Jade mumbled to him, hitting him with her foot so he would not participate in making the tension in the room go up any more. 

"You would need perfect grades" Louison added, "Every subject over at least _Exceeds Expectations._ And the process is very difficult, and..."

"I have top grades in every course, Mom" Diana started to raise her voice, "And I'm following like, four more courses that I have to, to get my Beauxbâtons degree. And you know it."

" _Diane_ " Iago tried to talk her down - and Clarke noticed he was pronouncing her name the French way - " _Ne sois pas bête. Tu n'as pas besoin de..._ "

" _On ne t'a rien demandé, Iago_ " Diana replied in french, and got up from the table, going up the stairs and banging her door closed. 

Clarke did not speak french; so she had no idea what Iago had told her cousin; and why Iago was now looking like he was either going to cry or break things. 

"Well that went well" Nathalia sighed, starting to pile the plates together so they could start cleaning up the table. Clarke followed her into the kitchen, rolling up her sleeves so she could get on doing the dishes. 

"You're ok?" Nathalia then asked her, passing her the dirty plates and taking the clean ones so she could dry them and put them back into the cupboards. 

"Yeah" Clarke nodded. "But I don't think Diana is, though."

"Well" Nathalia sighed, leaning against the counter while drying another plate, "She'll come around. Mom and Dad, too."

"I didn't know she wanted to become an Auror" Clarke said. She knew a bit about them, as her friends had told her about aurors a bit in the past. 

"I wasn't sure, either" Nathalia answered, "But I kind of knew something was running on her mind."

Clarke nodded. "Your parents seem to disagree with that path. Is it not a good career?"

"Oh it is" Nathalia said, "But us Griffins don't have a very good history with becoming aurors."

"What do you mean?" Clarke frowned, not getting it. 

"A lot of Griffin members fought during the first war" Nathalia said, "Like Claire, Dani and Elena's aunt, the one Elena inheritated the necklace from?"

Clarke nodded, telling her cousin she was following her. 

"Well, most of them were Aurors" Nathalia told her. "And most of them died."

Clarke didn't answer anything; no words were needed to get the picture why Andrew and Louison wouldn't want their daughter to become an auror and have her be the front line if another war against Dark Forces was to come their way soon. 

"Were they Aurors, your parents?" Clarke asked next, the question suddenly passing through her mind, " _Are_ they?"

"I'm only sure that they are not aurors _now_ " Nathalia sighed, looking forwards as if she was lost in her thoughts. "I know that they fought during the war too, and that Dad took a safer job after we were born so we would be safe. But I don't know if they were aurors, back in their days. They never talk about it, and we never dare ask."

"Why not?" Clarke questionned again, wishing her earlier conversation with Andrew hadn't been cut out. 

"I don't know, Clarke" Nathalia shrugged her shoulders. "We can't imagine what it must have been like, back then, but it was hell. And they lost more than half of their friends. Maybe it's too painful for them to talk about it."

Clarke didn't ask any more questions about it, and after finishing the dishes, the family called it a day and everyone went to bed. 

* * *

The next morning, there was a gentle tugging at Clarke’s arm as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes.

“Thalia?” Clarke frowned, looking at her cousin who was leaning over her, a grin clearly written on her lips. Clarke frowned; she remembered her cousin telling her there wouldn't be Quidditch training on Christmas' morning. 

“Come on Clarke” Nathalia threw a sweater at her face and banging the door open, “Santa came by!”

And she jumped down the stairs, as her excitement could be heard all over the house. Clarke couldn’t suppress the grin that made its way to her face; she was, too, a bit more excited than she wanted to admit. Clarke hurried to put the sweater on and a pair of warm socks and whistled for Aska to follow her down the stairs.

“Hello Clarke, merry Christmas” Clarke was greeted by Louison, her aunt, as she was smiling to her niece. 

"Merry Christmas" Andrew Viny gently squeezed her shoulder, passing by her to go settle into one of the couches of the living-room. 

“Merry Christmas” Clarke smiled back at them as she was taking in her surroundings.

The walls and staircase had been completely covered in Christmas decorations. The table had been dressed for breakfast, with at least four different dishes. But it wasn’t what was impressive; there were gifts everywhere. With all different sizes and wrappings, there was as many piles as people in the house.

“Merry Christmas Clarke” Diana was now standing next to the Blonde, gently squeezing her cousin’s arm.

“Yeah, you too” Clarke murmured back, still a bit fascinated with all the gifts laying around the room. Diana smiled again, putting a hot cup of chocolate into Clarke’s hands and walking away to let her with her thoughts for a couple of seconds.

A few feet away, Jade and Timothé were already sitting down next to the piles of presents wearing their names, looking really impatient to begin the unwrapping.

“Go on, kids” The Viny’s father, Andrew, waved them forwards with a grin on his face.

And Clarke couldn’t help but laugh as all for Vinys children jumped on their gifts, tearing through all the colorful papers and wrappings.

“What are you waiting for, Clarke?” Louison then nudged her with her elbow, “Go on, open your gifts too or your cousins will do it for you.”

Clarke frowned, looking at her aunt; and then crossed Diana’s eyes, as mischievous as Louison’s. And then Clarke spotted a pile, with gifts that all had her name written on it. Aska was proudly sitting down next to the pile, as if he was proud to have found Clarke’s gifts and couldn’t wait for her to start unwrapping them.

“But…” Clarke started, not understanding how she could have that much gifts; but Louison only smiled at her, gesturing for her to go on.

Clarke delicately took the first wrapped package from the pile; a neat handwriting was wishing her a merry Christmas on a red and green card. It was Nathalia’s handwriting, Clarke recognized it. She gently opened the present; it was a book about flying techniques various Quidditch strategies through the ages. Throat tightening, Clarke looked up and noticed how Nathalia was looking at her, probably watching as she was opening her present.

“Thank you” Clarke murmured to her cousin – who only winked back and returned to opening her other gifts.

Clarke took a messy wrapped present next, and chuckled as she recognized who had made it; Octavia and Raven. It was a wooden frame with a picture from the three of them they had took last summer. On the wooden frame was written _sisters_ on top of the picture. Suddenly, Clarke felt a warmth into her chest. She did have a family, even before knowing about the Vinys’ existence. She had always belonged somewhere; with Octavia and Raven. Then, now, and always. Clarke made a mental note to write a letter to them today to thank them and make sure they knew how much they meant to her. For a couple of seconds, Clarke even wondered what they were up to; she hadn't receive any letter yet, and she didn't know if their plan to find out if Malfoy was the villain had been put in motion or if the polyjuice still wasn't ready. 

Clarke put those thoughts on the side, telling herself she would reach out to her friends later in the day, and moved on to the next gift with her name on it. It was small, with a little note attached to it. Clarke frowned, sure she had seen that handwriting somewhere before. She opened the letter and started to read.

_Clarke,_

_I hope you’re having a great Christmas with your family. I would have given you this small gift myself but I figured, since you wouldn’t be in Beauxbâtons for Christmas, it was better to give to your cousins instead so you could open it with the rest of your gifts on Christmas morning._

_I’m thinking of you and I look forwards for your return,_

_Lexa._

Clarke didn’t know how to feel about the letter. She put it to the side and unwrapped the little present that was inside the package. It was a flat bracelet, maybe three or four centimeters wide, blue as Clarke’s eyes and embroided with a pattern Clarke had never seen before. It almost looked like letters from a different language.

“So _this_ is Lexa’s gift” Diana hummed, having sat down next to Clarke and looking at the bracelet that had been in Lexa’s package, turning it over to see the complete pattern. “She chose well.”

Clarke threw an interrogative look at her cousin; she had a feeling like Diana wasn’t talking only about the color and shape of the bracelet. But Clarke didn't have time to ask any more question as the whole family was now suddenly all gathered around Clarke, looking as if they were waiting for her to open the next present. 

Frowning, Clarke glanced at the long package waiting to be opened. She recognised that shape; but it couldn't be. Could it...? 

With careful and slightly trembling fingers, Clarke began to unwrap her present. She gasped at the second she saw what was in there; a broom. A brand new one, looking exactly like those Malfoy's father had gifted the Slytherin's team at the beginning of the school year. 

"What the..." Clarke trailed off, tears already gathering in her eyes as she finished to take out the wrapped paper. Running gentle hands on the shining object, Clarke noticed that while it was a Nimbus 2001 like Malfoy's, hers was slightly brown instead of black, with golden letters and a symbol engraved onto the handle. 

"We asked for it to be made with Gryffindor's colors" Diana then explained with a gentle voice. 

"This is Griffin's motto" Nathalia added, her fingers brushing on the tiny golden letters. 

"May we meet again" Clarke murmured, reading the words. She had heard her parents say those words a couple times; her friends, too, but she had had no idea it actually was a Griffin's saying. 

"Thank you" Clarke breathed again, "I don't know what to say..."

"You can train with your own broom now" Andrew winked at her. "All the kids already have one, it was only fair that you got your own, too."

"Your mother helped us, too" Louison then told her, surprising Clarke. "She was the one to suggest writing down Griffin's words, actually."

Clarke nodded, not really knowing what else to say or do. But the Vinys all seemed to understand; and if Clarke's eyes weren't so watery, she could have thought she had seen tears in the Vinys' own eyes, too. 

* * *

After a big Christmas breakfast, Timothé, Jade and Nathalia were eager for Clarke to test out her new broom, so the four of them went to the Quidditch pitch built behind the house to try it. As she was up in the air, Clarke could see Iago and Diana, standing a few feet away, looking at them fly around and talking to each other; which seemed to be an heavy conversation. Clarke frowned, because she had never seen her cousin so weighted down before, and despite her sisters saying that Diana was doing ok, Clarke was actually starting to worry about her. 

"Clarke, catch!" Nathalia said as she was throwing the ball her way with force. 

Clarke caught it at the last second, barely escaping the ball breaking her nose in the process; she immediately recognised the added strength into the ball's speed. Nathalia had used her magic to move it around. The Blonde threw an unimpressed look at her cousin as she was trying to repress her desire to call her a cheater; no one could tell how Nathalia would react to those words, and Clarke didn't want to risk it. 

Timothé wasn't having it though, and called his sister out on it. 

"You cheated!" He exclaimed, "We said no magic!"

Nathalia narrowed her eyes at him, and a second later she was chasing him in the air like a mad person, yelling at him " _I'll show you no cheater!!"_

Clarke chuckled, figuring out training time was over. Slowly heading to the ground, Clarke took a few seconds to appreciate her new gift; this broom was light, very precise in its movements, and surely the fastest broom that you could by on the market if you were looking for a competition-broom. In the air, it was like this broom was actually _made_ to react to Clarke's touch, almost as if it had a mind of its own, capable of predicting Clarke's thoughts and decisions before she could even put them into actual actions. Following her every move, Clarke was feeling like the broom was another piece of herself; as if _she_ was the one flying, and that the Nimbus 2001 was only following her movements around. 

Clarke put her feet on the ground, keeping the broom into her hand and running her fingers onto the golden letters once more. 

"So, does it fit you?" Diana asked, making Clarke jump out of surprise as she hadn't heard her cousin approaching. 

"Yeah" Clarke grinned at her older cousin. "It's perfect."

Diana smiled back, and even Iago managed a smile of his own. Then, Louison was calling Diana for help into the greenhouse, and Clarke was left alone with Iago; his curious eyes set on her, as they seemed to be every time Iago was near the Blonde. 

"What is this?" Iago asked, pointing to the blue bracelet Clarke was wearing around her wrist. Lexa's gift. 

"Oh" Clarke ran her fingers onto the pattern embroided on it, "A friend of mine gave it to me for Christmas."

"Lexa Woods" Iago said, looking at the pattern and the symbols as though they were making sense and he was reading them. 

"Yes" Clarke nodded. "You know her?"

"Her family is well known into the magic world" Iago hummed, looking over to the Quidditch pitch where Nathalia and Timothé were finally done with chasing each other and were now getting off their brooms. "There are few people that _don't_ know her."

Clarke frowned; she didn't remember Lexa talk about her family other than about her dead parents, and the two cousins she knew of, Anya and Tris. 

"You will have the answers you seek, Clarke" He then told her in a cryptic way. "You just have to be patient a bit longer."

And then he put his hand on her shoulder, probably to offer some kind of comfort; but then both of them were jumping away from each other as if they had both been burned by the touch. 

"What the..." Clarke trailed off, her own hand immediately going to the spot where Iago had touched her; Iago was now looking at his hand as if it wasn't his own. 

But Clarke didn't have time to ask about it, as Iago suddenly turned around and left her standing there, disappearing into the house a few moments later. 

"What just happened?" Clarke wondered at loud, looking down at Aska, hoping he could somehow explain this. 

* * *

In Hogwarts, Ron had his jaw wide open, eyes fixed on Hermione who had just gotten out of the toilets' cubicle. 

"Shit" Raven swore, taking Hermione's appareance in. 

"Maybe it's time we write to Clarke...?" Dani suggested, not very sure about what their next action should be. 

"She's going to _kill_ us" Octavia sighed. 

"Yup." Raven agreed. 

Hermione only whined, her whole face covered in furs. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for typos, English is not my first language ;) Feel free to leave comments!


End file.
